


Only Crystal

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Apocalypse, Bedroom Sex, Bestiality, Blood and Violence, Clothed Sex, Confessions, Consensual, Consensual Sex, Cowgirl Position, Doggy Style, Emotional, Espeon - Freeform, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Kiss, Fur, Gentle Kissing, Gentle Sex, Gentleness, Graphic Description, Gun Violence, Human/Pokemon Relationship(s), Kissing, Loss of Virginity, Love, Love Confessions, Major Illness, Major Original Character(s), Moaning, Multiple Sex Positions, Orgasm, Original Character(s), Plague, Pokemon, Pokemon Fanfiction, Pokephilia, Porn With Plot, Post-Apocalypse, Protectiveness, Quickies, Riding, Sex, Sex with Sentient Animals, Simultaneous Orgasm, Survival, Suspense, Thriller, Travel, Vaginal Sex, Violence, Virus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-02-08 17:01:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 28,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18627469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The plague spread across the entire region of Sinnoh and wiped out 90% of its population in just under a year. Ray, a teenager who fortunately didn't contract the quickly evolving virus, along with his Espeon, have to survive together within the dangerous region. It doesn't come without the fear of being killed or captured by insane trainers and pokémon that lurk about. While that's a situation on its own, Ray only has his Espeon to keep him company, and he soon can't help but begin to feel just a bit differently about her.





	1. Ray & His Espeon

**Author's Note:**

> In terms of plot to NSFW, this story should be on or near the same level as my previous story, (umbreon x fem trainer) "Midnight." A complete SFW version of this story will be posted on Fanfiction.net that will differ from this version with slight dialogue and story-based changes. You can actively follow the whereabouts of the main characters throughout the story with a layout of Sinnoh's map.

The ongoing sunset had quickly begun to replace the sunlight that shone above Sinnoh; a trainer and his pokémon were searching a home within Hearthome city for whatever was left inside that they could possibly benefit from. 

"Crystal!" Ray shouted his Espeon's name from one of the rooms of the house that they were currently in. He usually sent her off on her own to look for supplies, weapons, and anything that was edible while they were looting buildings. "Anything?" Ray asked as he saw Crystal walk up to him. 

She shook her head, Hearthome was a big city, Crystal had expected for it to be completely cleaned out. 

"Same here, we should get going then, it's dangerous to stay in such a central city… especially overnight." There were plenty of dangerous pokémon and their trainers roaming about that purposefully looked for trouble. Ray wasn't like them at all, but he always kept a pistol on him as a precaution. 

It had been only three months since the virus killed off everyone he knew, both his entire family and all of his friends. He extraordinarily never caught it, and there was only a single time where he or his Espeon definitely could have, but his mother forced both him and Crystal to leave her behind as soon as she started showing symptoms of having it herself. It wasn't yet clear to Ray how exactly the illness was spread, he just knew that it seemed to kill whomever it victimized rather quickly. All Ray had left was his young Espeon of four years, and he was now nineteen. She was the only thing he cared about anymore, and the only thing that kept him going everyday. 

"Come on." Ray slung his heavy gray backpack over his shoulder and exited through the front door of the house with Crystal walking right beside him. "Let me know if you see anything odd, as usual sweetheart." 

Crystal was no umbreon, but she saw well enough in near darkness to spot simple movement. As they strolled through the deathly silent environment of Hearthome, she was constantly looking in every direction, even keeping her ears perked to pick up any strange noises in the area. 

"We'll rest as soon as we get to Solaceon Crys', wouldn't want your paws getting too tired." Ray grinned down at her and pushed his short, black hair back, along with wiping some sweat from under his eyes. It was hot outside all day; they'd been searching the buildings in Hearthome for hours, and he couldn't wait to get to the small town and get some proper sleep with his Espeon. They never stayed in a single place for more than a day or two though, that would be far too risky. 

In just under thirty minutes, Ray somewhat saw Solaceon up ahead from the route that they'd taken to get there, and it brought him a lot of relief that the journey had gone so smoothly under nightfall. As they entered the town, Ray diligently scoped out his surroundings. There were a few houses that looked to be empty, but he could never tell for sure until he went inside. He knew Crystal could usually sense presence with her psychic abilities when anything alive was nearby. "There…" Ray spotted a house that had a good amount of trees that somewhat hid it from being out in the open. 

Crystal followed after her trainer; the gem on her forehead began to dimly glow as she mentally scanned for any nearby entity. Fortunately, it all seemed to be clear. 

Ray slowly pushed open the creaky door to the house and entered with his loaded pistol in hand; he made sure to thoroughly check the house and in each individual room with Crystal quietly padding behind him to make sure it was unoccupied. "We're good… for tonight anyway." Ray walked into the bedroom and sat on its blanketed bed, he set his backpack onto the floor and his pistol on the nightstand next to him. "Hungry at all?" He patted a spot on the bed next to him, and Crystal hopped up without hesitation. 

She was hungry, but wanted to sleep more, so she shook her head. It was sometimes hard to have an appetite during such depressing times.

"Rest your paws then, I'll be right by your side." Ray reached his right hand over and ran it down her sleek back, then twirled his fingers around her slim tail once he got there. Afterward, he pulled his hand away and laid down on his back. Ray wouldn't bother getting undressed, for a few reasons, but mostly so that he wouldn't get too comfortable. He suddenly felt some very light pressure on his lower stomach, and looked down to see Crystal cutely staring right at him, her right paw placed on his stomach with her tail slowly swaying from side to side. "Come here girl." He gladly gave her the permission that she respectfully asked for. 

Crystal slowly climbed onto her trainer's stomach and gently laid down on it, curling up and tucking her tail under herself a bit. 

"Night Crystal…" Ray rested his left hand on her thigh, and traced the fingers on his right hand around her ears and thin fur on her adorable face. She was a delicate creature, and deserved to be treated as such. He continued petting her until she fell asleep, and as soon as those beautiful purple eyes of hers closed, it didn't take long for Ray to fall asleep right along with her.


	2. The Rapids

Ray opened his eyes and quietly yawned to himself. He attempted to sit up, but was stopped by Crystal's weight. He'd completely forgotten that she was sleeping on him. Ray watched his Espeon's body steadily rise and lower, watching her breathe; just knowing that she was still alive and healthy made him happy enough. He feared everyday that Crystal would somehow catch the aggressive virus, and if she ever did, Ray wouldn't dare leave her behind. He already had to leave his mother. 

Upon looking out of the window, he saw that it was Dawn, and that was usually the best time for them to make distance. What cut that idea out of his head was the sudden yelling he heard that seemed to be coming from outside, and that definitely woke Crystal. "Stay here…" Ray set her beside him onto the bed and slowly stood up, there was no time to be afraid while living in these times, he had to know what was going on. Ray took his pistol from off of the nightstand and slid it into the back pocket of his blue jeans, he also had on heavy black boots that would be helpful if he ever had to fight anyone up close. Ray pulled the bottom of his black shirt over his pistol to conceal it and went over to the window to look outside. 

Crystal was just as worried about her trainer as he was about her, Ray protected her most of the time, and even though she knew how to battle and defend herself and Ray efficiently, Crystal knew she would be weaker in a battle against a human with a gun. She sat up on the bed and watched her trainer with perked ears. 

"It stopped…" Ray took a step back from the window, but as soon as he did, he heard the blood curdling yell again. He sighed and turned around to face his Espeon. "I need to go see what that is, stay put." Ray was fed up with living in darkness and continuously hiding from what was out there. He exited the bedroom and began walking down the hallway toward the front door, and Crystal followed behind him, she would let him go out there alone. 

Ray slowly opened the noisy door and took his pistol out of his back pocket while looking around, nothing yet. He began to close the door behind him and saw Crystal run in between his legs and appear in front of him. "Crystal… I don't want you out here... ugh, just stay behind me." Ray took a few steps forward into the main area of the town and -- there it was again. This time, he followed the source of where he heard the shouting coming from, and then he saw it. Right by Solaceon's main path, a man sat on the ground, and his poochyena sat right next to him. At a good distance, Ray watched the weakened male; he looked to be in his late 20's, and he wore an all black outfit. 

"Shoot me!" He must have noticed Ray, because he was now looking right at him. That was when Ray saw his face, it looked as if he'd been set on fire and was severely burned all over. "Fucking sh-" 

"Don't!... don't come any closer!" Ray had to keep him at bay as the man had weakly started to get up. "What happened to you?" He added. 

"What do you mean kid, Have you been living under a damn rock?! I have the rapids!" The man picked up his pokémon and held it in his arms while rocking back and forth. 

"The... what?" Ray lowered his weapon, which Crystal noticed, and she was now ready to attack at any moment. 

"The virus! I'm done for, it took a week for it to start feeding, a single week! It's a cough at first… some itching, and then it starts you eating you from the inside out before you know it. It's torture… so please, just sh-shoot me!" The man begged in a raspy tone, and Ray felt horrible for him, but he had one more question. 

"How…. how does it spread?" He asked, it would be very useful to know how to possibly avoid it. 

"Direct contact, if I so much as tap you right now, you'll probably get it. The virus covers your entire body, and it reproduces so damn fast!... now please, use that pistol!" 

Ray raised his gun and took just a few steps closer to the man and his pokémon. He couldn't leave him there to suffer for however long the virus took to finish him off. He saw the man close his eyes tightly and hold his breath as he braced for death. "I'm sorry this happened to you…" Ray made sure the barrel was properly lined up with his head, turned away so that he didn't see the initial shot, and pulled the trigger. 

Crystal flinched, and her ears slightly flattened for a moment while she watched the man fall over onto his back with his pokémon.

The sound of the shot filled up and spread out across the entire sky. He looked back down after a few seconds and stared down at the infected male's lifeless body. His poochyena did as well, it no longer had a trainer. Ray walked back over to Crystal and exhaled, at least he knew some basic knowledge about the virus. He saw his Espeon staring ahead at the poochyena, watching how lost the pokémon had to feel with no one left to guide him. "No, Crystal, we aren't taking it, we can't take any chances, now come on." Ray leaned down and tapped the side of her body to get her attention before heading back over to the house that they had slept in overnight. 

He got his backpack from the bedroom and went back out with his Espeon. "After that gunshot, we have to get far away from this town, there could be some group running toward the sound as we speak." Ray walked along the path to exit the city with Crystal, and he thought about how horrible that virus seemed to be. His mother had to endure that, but it wasn't like Ray would have been able to easily shoot his own mother in order to put her out of her misery. He then thought of either him or Crystal catching it, and he would have to see his sweet Espeon live through an unbearable amount of pain, and she would be left with no trainer if were to catch it. Ray wished that he could just leave Sinnoh with her, but it was a quarantined region, the ferry's stopped running as soon as the virus had started to spread. They just had to be careful, very careful.


	3. A Close Call

"We're heading straight up route 210 from Solaceon… so how does going to Veilstone city next sound Crystal?" Ray asked his Espeon while holding Sinnoh's map in his hand, and he knew she'd be just fine with it. 

Crystal confirmed his assumption and gave Ray a clear nod, she even added a small ear twitch at the end, just to be cute.

"Hope the city isn't completely gutted out this time. We'll stop to eat once we're there too, I still have some berries that'll rot if you don't finish them." Ray spoke to his Espeon as if she could respond to him, but what else was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he had a single person to interact with, and Ray couldn't trust anyone he came across, they could be dangerous, or even have the virus for all he knew. He neatly folded the paper map back up and stuffed it into his right pocket. 

As Crystal walked right next to her trainer, she heard her stomach begin to lowly growl, those berries sounded great right about now -- but that wasn't the only thing that she heard, Crystal stopped walking completely and perked her big ears upward while staring behind her. 

"What is it?" Ray stopped to look back as well, he was glad to have Crystal with him, her ears were great at picking up noises. "Crys', is something there?" He asked again, and she hastily trotted over to a few trees by the side of the route and hid in the midst of them while staring at her trainer. It concealed her well enough.

Ray followed after her without a second thought and kneeled down behind one of the trunks beside her. "Whoever it is, I bet they followed after the sound of my gunshot…" Ray set his backpack down in front of him and took his pistol out of his back pocket. He then unzipped the side pocket on the backpack and pulled out a pre-loaded magazine for his firearm, Ray only had two more left after this one; so he had to use them wisely. He set them both on top of his backpack and took a glimpse out from behind the tree. "Are they any closer Crys'? I need nod updates." 

Crystal kept her ears perked while giving Ray the nod he wanted, the footsteps were getting closer by the second in fact, heavy footsteps. It didn't take long until they were within such close proximity that even Ray could now hear them, and it terrified him. The noise eventually stopped only a small distance away from Ray and Crystal on the route's main path. 

"We need to find out where that shot came from, they couldn't have gone very far." It was another male's voice, he sounded older than the last guy that Ray had met. 

"Crystal… stay." Ray whispered, he knew she wouldn't mindlessly dart out and attack, but he had to make sure. 

"C'mon then, they'll be in the next city for sure." Ray heard whomever it was begin to walk again, and he peeked his head out to see who it was. A huge blastoise and its trainer, too bad Ray only saw the backside of the trainer's dark blue hoodie. 

"That was close… thank you so much for saving us Crystal." He reached over and pulled his Espeon into a close hug, and she happily gave his arm an affectionate nuzzle in return. Ray pulled away after a second and slipped his magazines back into his backpack, then zipping it back up. "I guess going to Veilstone isn't an option anymore, we aren't taking on a Blastoise… I won't let you." 

Ray pulled his backpack over his shoulder and took out his map again. "Pastoria… Oreburgh." He mumbled and eyed the map, Ray was focused on it obviously, and Crystal innocently stared up at him as he gazed over the map. "Why don't we try Eterna next? We'd just have to get there before dark, hopefully that city is safe." 

Ray gave Crystal a light pat on the head and stood up, a lot more walking was ahead of them. This time, Crystal walked just slightly ahead of Ray, and he was able to see her trot in front of him. At first, his Espeon simply looked cute to him, but he took the time to watch her elegant and slim tail sway ever so slightly behind her, and her hind legs and thighs move in such a smooth and controlled motion as her paws carried her along. It was odd of him, Ray would usually never eye Crystal's body in that manner, and so he pushed any other strange thought of her out of his head for now. He had to focus on following the map in order to get to Eterna before sunset anyway. "Since our day was thrown off, I'll feed you as soon as we're farther away from this route. Promise." Ray let his pokémon know that he hadn't forgotten about her at all. This marked the very first day that Ray had killed someone, and probably got very close to being killed himself, there was no way that man and his Blastoise were looking for friendship.


	4. More of the Same

"We finally made it... tired?" Ray asked Crystal as they approached Eterna city from route 211. 

The espeon gave a tired nod up at him, and even stretched out her hind legs a few times in between steps. 

"Just hold out for a few more minutes love." They entered Eterna in just a little over a minute, and again, Ray had to be sure that the city was empty. The small amount of people left in the region had to stay somewhere after all. "We need a house, just let me know if anyone is around." Ray scanned the city with his eyes and spotted a few buildings upon their entrance. "The house on the left, come on." He made sure to lead as the two approached the white home, and looked down at Crystal while he stood by the door. 

She didn't feel a thing; it seemed to be clear, and she let Ray know this by taking a few more steps up to the door and giving it a nudge with her shoulder. 

"Good, we get a break." He sighed and easily opened the unlocked door since most locks were broken due to others breaking in previously, then checked every single room before residing in the bedroom as he usually did. "We've been in a lot of beds, kind of strange huh?" Ray set his backpack down onto the bottom of the bed and took off his boots this time before sitting on the middle section of it, though he did keep his socks on, he always kept himself clothed and prepared for any kind of unexpected danger. 

Crystal hopped up onto the soft bed and spread out the white blanket that covered it a bit with her paw before sitting next to the backpack. She was nearly starving, but wouldn't directly beg for anything to eat. 

"Here…" Ray knew his poor Espeon was beat, and so he unzipped the main section of his backpack to pull out the plastic carton of berries he'd put together for her while they were traveling. He also poured her some water from one of his bottles into a separate carton. "A lot of pecha and oran in here for you." Ray opened the lid and set it down in front of her; he watched Crystal lean down and begin to slowly eat at the assortment. He was glad that she was finally eating, taking care his Espeon was his top priority. Ray reached his right hand out and slowly began to run his hand down her sleek back as she quietly ate and lapped up all of the water. 

Once finished, Crystal licked her lips and let out a cute exhale while sitting back up. 

"Full?" He asked her with a grin, and he received the usual nod from her in return. "Good, I'll eat later, I just had to make sure you were taken care of first." Ray patted his lap for her and sat back onto the bed some, he wanted to give her as much attention as possible while they were together. 

Crystal stood up and went over to sit in her trainer's lap, and once she was comfortable enough, looked right up at him. Ray looked right back down at her and held her cheeks with the palms of his hands. "You have beautiful eyes Crys', the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen…" He stared right into his espeon's mesmerizing orbs, then leaning over and kissing the gem that was on her forehead. "I want you to get some sleep, can you do that for me?" Ray softly asked, he could never raise his voice at her, no matter how upset he got. 

She nodded once again, Crystal was fairly tired anyway, but wouldn't object to her trainer's wishes.

"Thank you, I'll sleep soon too." He gently picked her up and placed near the top end of the bed so that she wouldn't have to walk anymore. "Sweet dreams Crys'... I love you." Ray gave the top of her head another loving kiss as she curled up and draped her tail over her lower body. 

He took the alone time to drink some water himself and check the ammo count in the current magazine that was inside of his pistol. Ray still hadn't grown much of an appetite, though he would have to eat soon, he'd already lost enough weight over the past few months. He looked over at his sleeping Espeon and watched her rest for a while. She was amazing, but Ray wished he had a human to talk to sometimes. He thought about all of his old friends, and even that one girl he used to like. He'd never get another chance to have any sort of physical or emotional relationship, Ray wouldn't go near or touch anyone as long as they lived in Sinnoh. He did have Crystal of course, but she was his pokémon, there wasn't much he could do with her right? 

Ray dropped the thought and went over to lay next to her, he made sure not to wake her as he did. He slid his pistol under his pillow and made sure the safety was on this time, then draped his right arm over Crystal's warm body. 

Ray had no clue what they would do tomorrow, search more buildings? Travel to some other city? They were surviving under no real or meaningful purpose, unless they would both get out of Sinnoh one day -- but what if the other regions were already hit by the virus as well? Ray couldn't think like this though, he wouldn't ever give up as long as Crystal was with him. As far as he was concerned, he lived to keep Crystal alive, for if Ray didn't have her, he'd surely go insane.


	5. Siren

"Ughn!..." Ray was abruptly woken up by a dull and blunt pain felt in the right side of stomach. He sat up quickly and saw a figure standing next to the bed while looking down at him, his face was somehow hidden behind his dark blue hoodie. "Finally found you, now get up and give me that backpack." The man ordered, and he was pointing a rifle right at him. 

Ray couldn't possibly reach for his own pistol, and so he went to reach for his backpack as instructed; while he did, Ray saw that Crystal had just slightly opened her eyes. 

"Hurry up!" The man boomed, and Ray quickly handed the man his backpack. "Thanks, kid." Right after that, the man threw Ray's backpack over his shoulder with one hand, then put it back on the rifle and immediately pulled the trigger. 

Ray shot up from the position he was laying in on the bed and eventually caught his unsteady and heavy breathing, it was only a dream. 

This woke Crystal up out of her sleep, and she too sat up, a groggy gaze in her eyes while she looked up at her frazzled trainer. 

Ray turned to look back at her and sighed. "Just a bad dream Crys', sorry for waking you." The sun had just begun to rise over the region, so she would have woken up soon anyway. 

Crystal went over and brushed her slim body alongside his lower back before sitting in front of him. 

"We should search a few buildings here today, maybe we'll find something." Ray stretched out his arms and scooted over to the edge of the bed to put on his boots. He needed to put on a new change of clothes, and take a shower as well. Neither of those were his first priority, so he probably would after evening hit. 

Meanwhile, Crystal had begun to felt odd in her lower regions and stomach, the sensation was kind of warm at first. It had to be the start of her heat cycle, but the Espeon would ignore it for now, it would be hard to once the cycle made her feel miserable. It wasn't like there were any viable males around to relieve it.

"All right, come on." Ray grabbed both his pistol and backpack and walked out into Eterna city with Crystal. "Let's try the poké mart… even though those are usually barren." He said and began heading over to the mart in hopes that it wasn't. Crystal made sure to watch out and listen for any danger while on the way. "Here we are…" Ray stopped at the front entrance to the mart and attempted to pull the once automatic door open, but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked, which is honestly a good thing, but I don't know how we're getting in there." 

While Ray thought of a solution, Crystal remembered that she could somewhat use her telekinesis. It had been a while since she practiced it, and these days, the Espeon mainly used her abilities to sense nearby movement and at times to predict extreme weather. Crystal approached the sliding door and put all of her focus onto it, as if becoming one with the door. The gem on her forehead would begin to dimly glow, a light blue aura, and the door in front of her began to subtly vibrate. 

"What the…" Ray took a step back and looked down at his focused pokémon. "Oh… Crystal's doing that." He said to himself and watched her mentally work at the door. Ray knew that when she used telekinesis, it tired her out, but they needed that door open. 

Suddenly -- and luckily this wasn't too loud, the door completely shattered, which reasonably startled Ray. It was followed by Crystal nearly stumbling over, but Ray reached down to grab ahold of her sides in time. "Crys', are you okay?" He asked her and noticed that her breathing pattern was faster than usual. 

She nodded and flicked her tail, letting out a soft sigh. Crystal just felt weak was all, and she didn't mean to shatter the door. 

"Don't hurt yourself, okay? But thank you for getting that door... open, come on." Ray picked her up and gently set her down onto the floor of the poké mart after he'd stepped over the small particles of broken glass. "If you have the energy, go ahead and search for anything useful Crystal, if not… just sit here." Ray looked around the small market, there wasn't much to look around for, but at least it wasn't completely empty. He'd found a few bottles of water, a few bags of poké chow that Crystal generally didn't enjoy eating, and a few potions that Ray could have her drink if she was ever in any sort of pain. 

Crystal had been searching behind the counters that previous cashiers worked at, and she found nothing but various types of pokéballs and other useless items. 

"Crys'!" 

She looked up from where she was standing, both of her ears erect as she heard Ray calling after her. Crystal quickly arrived right in front of where her trainer was standing and looked up at him. 

"I found all of this, we can check some other buildings throughout the day as well." As Ray began to fit the items into his backpack, he heard it, the heart stopping sound that came to existence once every month. He froze up while in the middle of slipping an item into his bag. The siren, it blared throughout every city across Sinnoh for one whole minute. It first came when the virus had really begun to spread and kill everyone off, it served as a warning to the untouched; apparently no one ever got around to disabling its scheduled system. Its tone would rise, and lower, until it fell completely silent for two seconds -- and then it would start up again. Ray sat there, just waiting for it to stop, he couldn't move. He wished it would stop. 

Once it finally fell silent again, he sighed and slowly put the rest of what he found in his backpack. "Come on Crystal."


	6. Temptation

Ray and Crystal had thoroughly searched two more buildings before nightfall came. They'd even searched all four floors of the Team Galactic Eterna building. Ray had felt nervous the entire time they were inside of there, not only because it was once one of the infamous Team Galactic's headquarters, but there had been a few decimated bodies on multiple floors as well. Some of them looked to be oddly intact, but most were eaten away. 

"My backpack is almost full now, we found some good stuff today." Ray gently patted the top of Crystal's head as she laid in his lap. They were back in the same house that they'd stayed in the night before, and were in bed. Ray did notice something odd about his espeon's behavior as he sat with her. There was a certain look in her eye, a bit of anguish and discontent was held in her orbs. "Crys', you feeling okay?" He asked while staring down at her. 

Yes, she was fine, but her heat was currently giving her a hard time. The espeon had to refrain from sitting up and shifting her hips against her trainer's lap in order to just temporarily relieve the irritation she felt. Crystal glanced up at Ray and gave him a nod, it wasn't like it would matter anyway, there was nothing that could be done to help her other than her being mated. 

Ray didn't want to pester at all, but he didn't have to think of what could possibly be wrong with his pokémon for much longer anyway. He remembered that look in her eyes from a while back, and knew exactly what it meant now. "Oh! You're in heat again… aren't you Crystal?" Ray asked her, and this time, the espeon gave him a much more subtle nod, as if she were a bit shy about admitting such a thing to her trainer. "I figured you were, I'm sorry you can't have any contact with other pokémon, but we can't… I know I sound like a broken record Crystal; we just can't risk anything." Ray felt bad for her, and so he slowly traced his right hand down her back -- however, Crystal's body couldn't take his touch so lightly. 

Her lower half would instinctively raise upward just a bit, but the espeon immediately corrected what she'd done by lowering it just as quickly. 

Ray noticed it anyway, and with him having absolutely no one around for so long, the sight of it alone had aroused him a bit. He had to get that out of his head though, Ray was her trainer, not her lover or mate -- or even a pokémon at all for that matter. He just longed for physical touch, and he knew that he'd likely never get it as long as he was in Sinnoh. Crystal's body was so slim and delicate though, and she was so sweet and elegant. It was somewhat tempting to think about her in such a way, but it wasn't like Ray knew how Crystal thought about him either. 

He took his thoughts no farther, and once Crystal was finally able to fall asleep, Ray would go and take a quick shower in the restroom that was fortunately attached to the same bedroom, and he put on a new outfit after he was out and dried off. His backpack held a few changes of clothes that he'd found while him and Crystal searched interiors over the past few months. He slipped into a pair of black jeans and a long sleeved red shirt. It never felt comfortable to sleep in jeans, but Ray wouldn't ever want to be caught unclothed or unready at all. He finished dressing up by slipping into his black socks, and keeping his boots right next to his bed so that he had easy access to them during the night. Ray didn't want to wake Crystal, especially when it had taken her a while to fall asleep in the first place. 

He let her keep the top half of the bed while he curled up near the bottom. A part of Ray felt like they should leave Eterna tomorrow, this was their second night spent in the same city. It felt so secure though, safe even. That was something to worry about in the morning, Ray just wanted to get some sleep, and hopefully he wouldn't have another odd nightmare.


	7. It Evolves

"Crys'... Crystal, wake up!" She heard in a near muffled tone as she was woken up by her trainer's voice. Crystal slightly opened her eyes to see Ray sitting above her, and the expression on his face seemed to be one of pure terror. That was when she forced herself to wake up some more, and eventually sat up after a while. 

"So… the dead people we saw inside of the Eterna building yesterday… th-the bodies that looked as if the virus hadn't infected them at all. They're right outside, just standing around… to think that we were in that building with them yesterday." Ray walked back over to the window in the room and slightly moved the white curtain to the side to peek out of it. There were two members of Team Galactic standing idle outside, and they were barely moving. "Zombies?..." Ray whispered to himself, and he didn't want to go out there and find out whether or not he was right. But at the same time, he wanted nothing more than to ditch Eterna with Crystal right now. 

Then, out of nowhere, the sound of sudden gunfire was heard, and both members of Team Galactic had fallen onto the ground. 

Ray quickly took a few steps back and grabbed a hold of his pistol, he put his backpack on his shoulder and slipped into his boots as well. "Follow behind me Crys', and stay quiet…" Ray silently walked out of the room and toward the front door, he then put his ear up to the door so he could listen. It was completely silent again, and Ray wouldn't sit inside all day to wait. He waited for just a few more minutes before unlocking and slowly pushing the door open. 

Crystal was ready to attack at any given moment as she stood directly behind him. 

Ray firmly held his pistol in his right hand, just as ready to fire as he took another three steps outside of the house. To the far right were where the two Galactic members laid lifeless on the ground, but what cut Ray's breath short and froze him to his core was the man standing a few feet away from them. He wore all black, and when he turned around, Ray recognized him immediately. The male still had the bullet entry wound near the top of his head, and that would be near impossible to survive. "What?..." Ray's pistol shook in his hand as he stared at the man. He hadn't felt so much fear and confusion since the outbreak first began. 

"I finally… found you." The man took a few steps toward Ray, and Ray didn't even raise his pistol to stop him this time. Crystal would have to make up for it herself if necessary. 

"I killed you already, how-- how are you alive?" Ray noticed a heavy wheeze within the man's voice as he spoke. 

"I'm not alive, nor am I dead. You can let go… only when it lets you go." The infected male pulled his own weapon out of the pocket of his jacket, a gray revolver. He stared at Ray with bloodshot eyes. 

"I've never seen this before..." Ray did begin to raise his pistol this time, just as the man had begun to do. 

"It's evolving, everyday, it evolves. You can join me, it's a whole lot better than living... suffering!" After that, the infected male would then lay the sights of his revolver on Ray, but before he could shoot at all, a bright beam of light appeared. 

Ray shielded his eyes with his arm for a moment, and when he looked back, he saw that a hole had been burned through the man's chest. His eyes wide, an expression of pure shock on his face as he struggled for breath that he could no longer gather. He fell over, for the second time. Ray stood there and stared down at the body, what just took place felt so unreal to him, but it made him wonder if that had happened to his mother by any chance. "Thank you for the psybeam Crystal." He made sure to thank his Espeon for saving the situation, and held her in his arms as they left Eterna so that she didn't have to walk this time. 

"Everyday… it evolves." Ray replayed those words to himself repeatedly as he walked, that was a terrifying statement. It meant that he'd never truly know what was coming next, it seemed like the virus altered its genetic makeup and became stronger by the day. If that was the case, Ray definitely couldn't live out his days with Crystal in Sinnoh, he now wanted to leave the region as fast as he could. That man was either kept alive by the virus and went insane, was being only partially controlled by it, or it was something else that didn't come to mind. Ray just hoped that it wouldn't become a huge issue, it seemed relatively new as he hadn't ever seen it before. But some of the bodies that were in the Eterna building were rotted, while some were untouched. Maybe the virus chooses who it preserves; it was far too much to think about. Ray was just a lot more fearful of the virus at this point, it was obviously becoming more dangerous. 

They arrived in Oreburgh by early noon, and Ray set Crystal down as they entered. "We aren't searching today, I just want to stay inside. We'll be good on supplies for a while anyway." The city seemed safe, other than a few wild pokémon that Ray saw scatter once he spotted them. He took the house that was right next to the poké mart, and oddly enough, its bed was placed in the living room by the wall and under a window. It was a nice change though. The mattress was held up by a metal frame, and Ray set his backpack down on the floor beside it. "I'll at least check the kitchen, doesn't feel right to not search at all. You stay here sweetheart." He picked Crystal up from the floor and set her on top of the bed; it had a slight creak to it once her weight had been placed on it, but nothing too annoying. 

Ray took a small box of crackers from his backpack and ate them while he searched. The cabinets surprisingly held a few bottles of water and some cans of food that he swiftly gathered. "I'm back, it's not much, but it counts." Ray put the items in his backpack and went ahead to check the other rooms within the house. He was surprised that he hadn't yet found any bodies in the rooms of any house that they'd ever been in. Most people and their pokémon must have have left their homes while attempting to flee the region. 

Ray sat down on the bed next to his Espeon, slipped his boots off and placed a hand on top of her head. "Well, we have the entire day ahead of us."


	8. Relief

Ray had been lying in bed with Crystal for a few hours, and over that span of time, the sunlight had been completely blocked out by dark gray clouds overhead. It would likely rain soon, the occasional sound of booming thunder could be heard across most parts of the region. He was laying on his right side near the wall, while she was sprawled out with her backside pressed against his stomach and chest. 

It was nearing evening, and that's when Crystal's heat would annoy and irritate her the most. On top of that, Ray was tracing his fingers from her lower thigh; up to her neck. He was still thinking about what had happened earlier, he still could barely process any of it, and currently had nothing to do to in order to get his mind off of it. Ray did feel Crystal's thigh tense up a bit whenever he would touch it while petting her, which brought him back to the touchy subject. "Sorry Crys', I didn't mean to trigger anything." Ray pulled his hand away from petting her, he didn't want to have her feel any worse. 

But Crystal already felt hot, and she sat up on the bed out of discomfort, now leveled with her trainer. The espeon leaned forward and softly nuzzled her furry cheek against Ray's, there wasn't much she could to cope with her heat. 

"I know, I'm sorry..." He sighed and gently held onto her waist area with his hands while giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. 

Crystal would slightly close her eyes from the kiss, and glanced down at where her trainer's hands currently were. 

Ray was about to let go and avoid touching her again, but this time, she looked directly at him, and her eyes held a gaze that asked him for something. "Crystal…" Ray knew exactly what she wanted, but it could be her heat doing the 'talking'. "You mean it?" He quietly questioned her, and the espeon began to slowly; gracefully sway her tail from side to side. There was no way Ray could deny her seductive play, and he found himself lean forward toward her face just a bit while lightly squeezing her waist. 

Crystal was just glad they were on the same page now, she loved her trainer more than anything else, she really loved him. If Crystal would give herself to anyone, it would be Ray. 

He pulled his Espeon just a bit closer to him, and couldn't possibly hold back from her at this point. Ray leaned in some more and softly pressed his lips against her delicate maw; he closed his eyes a bit and savored every moment that went by. He always gave her kisses, just never before on her mouth. 

Crystal had fallen into the kiss as well; it was full of passion, and had caused her ears to perk.

Ray pulled away after another moment, softly breathing from out of his mouth as he eyed his pokémon's cute face. He knew that it was the start of their physical connection being taken a step farther, but he wasn't sure if he should go through with anything more with Crystal. However, that was changed when she stood up and brushed the side of her body against his chest, and as she took another step forward before turning around, Ray was able to see her swollen vulva and the small slit in between her legs. It was enough to completely change his mind, and he had already been rather erect under his pants anyway. 

As she walked back over and sat in front of her trainer once again, Crystal watched his right hand reach down to her warm lower stomach and begin to slowly rub it. She gladly let him, and even spread her hind legs out a bit. 

Ray soon felt lower and lower, until he'd reached her clitoris, and he gently pressed into it once he did, rubbing it in a circular motion with both his index and middle finger. 

This brought a small exhale out of her mouth, and she swayed her hips against Ray's fingers as he began to rub her out. The sensation she felt from that alone drove her crazy, her tail and hind legs slightly stiffening. 

"You have it bad, don't you Crys'?" Ray pulled his hand away, not wanting to tease her for too long. He sat up on the bed and sighed as looked down at his seemingly innocent espeon. "I just want you to be sure that you want this Crystal… and that you want it from me." 

And Crystal gave him a nod of confirmation, of course she did. 

"Okay… and I'm a bit new to this, are you?" Ray asked, he'd let her show him exactly what she wanted to do. 

Crystal gave him a shy nod, she'd never been mated before, but trusted that her trainer would be gentle with her the first time around. Crystal wasn't that nervous though, especially because her heat was killing her, she needed to be penetrated. The espeon centered herself and stood on the upper-middle area of the bed, then lowered her front half so that her chest rested on the soft mattress. She grounded her front paws into the cream colored blanket underneath her and raised her hind paws and rear up into the air while gazing back at Ray. 

He looked ahead at the espeon that had just given him full access to her body- his espeon. Ray took a quick moment to admire what was in front of him. Her positioning really showed off her thighs, along with her hind paws and legs. He didn't want to keep her standing there though, and so Ray got to quickly unbuttoning and pulling down his black jeans and boxers, just enough so that it would reveal the full erection that he had just for Crystal. 

She felt her body slightly tense up just from the sight of his member; it would be a perfect fit for her, sized just above average. 

Ray moved forward so that he sat right behind her on his knees, and held onto her soft inner thighs with his hands. "Are you ready love?" He positioned the tip of his erect member at her slit and looked down at her. 

Crystal nodded in response, and snaked her tail around her trainer's right arm while bracing for him to enter her. 

"Okay… I won't be rough." Ray made sure the grip he had on her inner thighs was firm enough, and slowly pushed his hips forward so that half of his length would enter her womanhood and stretch out her vaginal lips some. 

Crystal would squeeze her trainer's arm with her tail and flatten her ears a bit upon feeling Ray's hard shaft inside of her for the first time. She felt quite a bit of pain, but a lot more pleasure, especially because of how long she'd been wanting to be mated. 

"Y-You okay Crys'?" Ray asked since he felt her tense up. Even though he was only halfway inside of her, her vaginal walls already felt so tight and wet. 

Crystal gave Ray a quick nod, and desperately wanted him to keep going. She even slightly pushed her hips back into his in. 

"I'll… push in the rest of the way then." Ray made sure to watch her as he pushed his hips forward until they would be pressed against the backside of her thighs and rear. 

It had broken her hymen easily, and Crystal winced from the sudden pain it had brought her as a result. But this didn't mean she wanted Ray to stop. Crystal rolled her hips against his, which pushed and rubbed his erection around her pulsing walls; that brought her a great amount of pleasure. 

"Ahn, o-okay, I'll start thrusting now…" Ray caught onto her hint pretty quickly, and began to slowly thrust his member in and out of her soaking womanhood, his throbbing shaft sliding against her slick walls with ease. "I...I don't know if I can hold off for long i-inside of you Crystal…" His breathing stifled a bit as he continued to thrust his throbbing cock in and out of his pokémon's constricting hole; that made the experience so much hotter, that he was pounding his beloved espeon. He leaked a bit of pre-cum into her walls as they squeezed around his shaft. 

Crystal's hind legs would tremble under Ray's thrusts, especially once he'd begun to speed up his pacing. The young espeon now found herself breathing through her mouth, panting from the amazing sensation that her trainer's hard shaft constantly gave her body. She felt his hips smack against her backside with each powerful thrust Ray gave, and her body was pushed forward each time. The bed even shook and creaked under their movement. 

"Oh...f-fuck, Crys', you feel a-amazing!...s-so wet..." Ray could barely hold himself back, he increased the pace in which he shoved his cock in and out of Crystal's wet pussy, releasing more pre-cum inside of her. His thrusts were heavily audible at this point; and he couldn't possibly hold off inside of his sweet espeon for much longer. Ray felt Crystal's tail squeeze his arm tightly, and his hands and arms would begin to shake as well. The pleasure had him beginning to feel dazed, and he could barely keep his eyes open, though he did force himself to since he wanted to watch every moment of what he was doing to his espeon. "Oh, I'm g-gonna cum soon Crys'!" Ray now began to slightly pull at her inner thighs as he roughly pushed his length deep into her ridged and heavily pulsating walls. His member would slide in and out of her wet womanhood at a quick pace, and his breathing uneven and heavy through his open mouth. 

Crystal had a hard time standing at this point, her eyes were closed tightly, her panting heavy, and her ears nearly completely flattened against her head as she would let out adorable and small moans. Ray was making her feel better than she'd ever felt before in her life, and his wildly throbbing length being shoved in and out of her wet vagina so hard sent her over the edge. The pleasure that stemmed from it overtook her, and she began to feel her climax build within her lower stomach with every passing second. 

"Nngh!" Ray leaned forward a bit, pounding his Espeon's hole while tightly gripping onto her inner thighs. "C-Crystal! I-I'm…" He gasped a few times, and continued to slowly hump his hips against her soft backside as his orgasm came over him strongly. His cum spurted into her walls and filled her up quite a bit. 

Crystal felt his warm fluid soon release inside of her walls and mark her, her trainer's erect cock throbbing against her pulsating walls like a second heartbeat. 

After just a few more seconds, Crystal's tail loosened around Ray's arm, and she would have fallen over if he hadn't still been holding onto her. As he began to catch his breath, Ray pulled out of his espeon's hole and laid her down onto the soft bed. He then laid next to Crystal and snuggled up to her, his right hand gently tracing up and down her ear. Ray gave her furry cheek a soft and loving kiss before laying his head down next to her and closing his eyes.


	9. Oreburgh City

Ray woke up to a strange noise, and he hadn't been able to comprehend it well enough since it was what had just pulled him from out of his sleep. It was still dark out, so Ray had only gotten about a few hours of sleep. But he heard it again, more pronounced; it was a groan. One that sounded of pain and suffering. 

"What?…" Ray mumbled and slowly sat up to look out of the window that was right above him while pulling his pants back up. It was dark out there, but Ray still faintly saw a few people, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he was able to make out that they were the workers of Oreburgh - at least 20 of them that he could see. "It was a mistake coming here…" Ray watched them lurk about aimlessly as if they were normal beings, though he knew that they weren't at all. Ray couldn't go outside and leave the city this time, he was heavily outnumbered by them. He would unfortunately have to stay overnight and could only hope that the situation would improve in the morning. 

Ray left the window and silently got off of the bed to get ahold of his pistol, he didn't want to wake Crystal. He suddenly flinched once he heard glass break, that had to be the poké mart next door. "That means they could break into this house next…" Ray didn't necessarily know what they wanted, but he couldn't take the chance. "Agh...I can't leave her by the window." He set his firearm onto the bed and gently picked up Crystal, once she woke up enough, Ray let her front paws fall over his left shoulder and wrapped his arm around her lower back to hold her up. "Sorry Crys', we have some potential trouble outside." Ray took light steps to the front door and made sure that it was locked, then crouched down right beside it so that could hear what was going on outside. He wouldn't put Crystal down either, Ray felt that she would be safer this way. 

Of course, a part of Crystal did want to be put down, but she didn't really know what exactly was going on and also really wanted to stay in Ray's hold for safety. 

Ray sat in silence, leaned up against the wall while waiting for any sign that the infected workers outside would try and enter the house. That was answered in but a few minutes when Ray heard footsteps walk right by the front door; he held his breath and held onto his espeon just a bit tighter while staring straight ahead. It seemed as though nowhere in the region would truly be safe now, if he couldn't leave Sinnoh soon, both he and Crystal would be dead in no time. 

"Just stay silent... just stay silent." Ray kept his breath held and closed his eyes once he heard the shuffling of feet nearby, but he then heard a voice come from behind the door. 

"Check... every house."

That was it, the workers would definitely break into the house, and the worst part about it was that Ray couldn't even let them lay a single hand on him or Crystal. He panicked silently, and knew he would have to find somewhere to hide. Quickly.


	10. The Wrong City

"We have to find somewhere to hide before they get in…" Ray whispered loud enough so that Crystal could hear him. He was terrified, more than he ever was before. Ray barely wanted to move, he sat there, his arms lightly trembling as he held onto his Espeon. 

That was when Crystal knew that she had to do something herself. She wriggled her way out of his hold, and once on the floor, looked back at Ray while taking a few steps away from the door. 

"Crys'-" He was about to ask her what she was doing, but he then heard a loud 'bang' on the door. They were trying to get in. Ray slowly and silently got up from the floor and followed after Crystal as she trotted over into the next room that was down the hall. It seemed like a dressing room, there were a few brown and white drawers against the walls, and a closet door in the left corner. "The closet!" Ray whispered harshly and pointed his pokémon toward it. 

He entered the room and went over to the white door, opening it slowly and looking inside of it. A good amount of shirts and thick coats were hanging up, and it would hide them well once they were inside. He stepped inside after Crystal and pulled the clothes forward a bit so that he would be sitting behind the row of everything that was hanging up. Ray quietly closed the door and pulled Crystal onto his lap so that she sat in it. "I'm so scared Crys'..." He would breathe silently, sitting in the dark whilst firmly hugging his espeon's waist with his left arm. 

They'd hidden just in time, the heavy sound of the front door that Ray had once sat beside had been knocked down with force. Ray knew that both him and Crystal would likely be found if enough of the workers searched the house at one time, but there wasn't much else that he could do. Not a sound was heard for a few minutes, but Ray then heard footsteps in the living room. They'd see his backpack for sure, he'd forgotten to bring it along with him, and he cursed himself for that in his head. 

"Water, pokémon food… someone is here." Ray heard what they'd said faintly, and he now knew that he was screwed. 

Crystal had also heard it, and was ready to burn some more holes into any attackers before she'd let them get anywhere near her or Ray. 

"We have to get out of here Crys', they'll find us for sure…" He whispered, and just as he said that, he heard the footsteps enter the very room that they were hiding in. 

"You check… the other rooms." Their breathing pattern and voices sounded both raspy and wheezy. Ray heard the steps make their way around the room, and he gripped onto his pistol firmly in his right hand, he had to be ready to shoot. The steps would slowly get closer as the moments passed, and they soon stopped right in front of the closet door. Ray was able to hear a small creak in the floorboards because they'd gotten so close. He held his breath out of fear as if it would help, but it didn't at all. 

The doorknob was clutched, and Ray brought himself to aim his pistol up where he assumed the infected assailant's upper body would be. Crystal gazed at the door and prepared her psybeam. The door was slowly pulled open, and as soon as the man's silhouette was in clear view - Ray fired his gun twice. The first bullet whizzed right past its victims face, but the second hit him in the chest before he had time to properly react. This was hastily followed up by a clean psybeam through his neck from Crystal, no blood involved. The man collapsed backward onto the floor with a loud thud that had to have alerted whomever else lurked about or around the outside of the house - not to mention both of the gunshots that Ray had fired. 

"Come on Crystal, now's our chance!" Ray got up quickly while holding Crystal, only putting her down onto the floor after he made sure that they had gotten past the body. "Stay behind me… I'd rather it be me than you." He told Crystal in a serious tone, if one of them had to suffer the rapids, Ray wouldn't let it be his Espeon if he could help it. He knew there was at least one or two more of the infected inside of the house at the time, and so he wouldn't leave the room - through the doorway that was. Ray looked back at the closed window that was in the room. That was their best and safest option that they currently had - and he had to act quickly on it. Ray heard a lot more of the infected coming toward and entering the house from outside. "We have to get this window open!" Ray ran over to it, and with some pulling, managed to slide it upward. "Come on Crys', hurry!" He made sure his Espeon had started making her way over to the window before he hopped out of it himself. 

"Just… run!" Ray yelled back at her while quickly heading towards the city's exit. 

Crystal had no trouble keeping up either, she was right behind Ray, and she looked behind her to see at least thirty of the workers chasing after them. 

Ray saw it too, and had no idea how to lose them. He had just a few remaining shots left in his pistol, and no extra magazines for it. He knew that he couldn't run forever, but 'they' likely could. Ray desperately looked around at anything that would help him escape. Hiding wouldn't work and was too risky, and there was no way he was fighting so many of those monsters off with Crystal.


	11. A Savior

After running across route 206's dampened and dark road for just a few more minutes, Ray already felt too tired to continue, and it's not like the infected would stop chasing after him and Crystal. It was currently their only goal. He looked behind himself to see his poor Espeon keeping up, but just barely while panting. "Crys'!... Crystal, come here!" Ray slowed down and let her catch up; as soon as she did, he snatched her up quickly and held her up against his chest in his left arm while speeding up once again. He had no choice but to return to Eterna city, and Ray still had no idea how to outrun the creatures behind them. He felt like his legs would give out at any moment, and he wouldn't dare look back at the horde at this point, his breathing heavy and his heart pounding. Ray could barely even think, but he couldn't continue running without a single clue on how to escape the workers. 

Suddenly, Ray heard a loud and powerful blast of water come from an unknown direction. It had almost caused him to lose balance since it startled him, and the confusion he felt only increased once the sound of heavy impact had followed the initial blast behind him. 

"Keep on hydro pumping them!" Ray heard, and this time, he did glance behind him - what he saw made him completely stop in his tracks while still tightly holding onto Crystal. The workers were being assaulted with continuous blasts of high pressured water by a Blastoise that had emerged from a tree nearby. His trainer stood right behind him. Since the workers' bodies had already begun the decayment process while they were dead, the water easily tore them apart and practically melted their skin off in just mere seconds. 

Ray fell down to his knees and attempted to catch his breath while clutching his pokémon. The trainer soon walked and stood over Ray, and he barely had the energy to defend himself if necessary. 

"Seemed like you needed some assistance, luckily I was here at the right time." A feminine voice, Ray noticed it immediately. The trainer kneeled down and appeared to be studying both Ray and Crystal as closely as possible under the moonlight. "You mind dropping the gun by the way?" She asked, and Ray did as was asked of him. Shooting both her and a huge blastoise wouldn't be an easy task at all anyway. "Thanks." She kicked it a few feet away from him and stood back up. "You infected?" 

"No…" Ray replied in between his heavy breaths, and eventually looked up at her, enough to notice her auburn colored hair. She wore heavy boots as Ray did, and a black utility belt that fit her small waist size with a ton of items and various weapons strapped all around it. She was also wearing a fully black outfit, both her pants and long sleeved shirt. 

"C'mon, let's take you and your pokémon somewhere safe for the night." She reached a black gloved right hand down, to which Ray gripped onto and pulled himself up while finally letting Crystal go. He noticed immediately that the glove felt cold, and that she'd also picked up his pistol right after helping him up. Why she trusted that he didn't have the virus and touched him and his equipment, Ray didn't know. "Name's Jenna, yours?" She had already begun to walk down the bike path, and motioned for the Blastoise to follow. Ray followed behind her with Crystal by his side. 

"It's Ray, and thank you for saving me…" 

"It's no problem, only mean when I have to be. What's your little one's name?" Jenna looked down at the small Espeon. 

"Crystal, It's just been her and I for the last few months. Lost everyone that ever meant anything to me." Ray replied, and he couldn't help but add in that last bit, he needed to vent after keeping everything held within him for so long. This was his first true interaction with another person after practically being alone since his mother had sent him off. 

"I get it, I only have my brother left… and Hydron." She glanced back at the intimidating blastoise as he trudged along. "By the way, that pistol of yours won't be getting you too far for very much longer. I've been cautiously studying the virus; it's getting more aggressive by the day." Finally, Ray could possibly have a better understanding of what exactly was going on. 

"I figured that… but I don't know its weakness, I can't seem to keep up with it." He sighed and looked behind him, that had to be paranoia. 

"Well, for now… I found that it doesn't like cold temperatures, it's why I keep this glove on. I can touch any item or dead person with it that may have rapids… but to be sure, we still throw anything taken in the freezer for an hour - oh! And the color black seems to really disorientate them, you almost had it down, but the shirt gives you away." Jenna grinned over at him a little, but the everlasting amount of growing hopelessness was clearly apparent in her eyes.

In just under an hour, Jenna had lead both Ray and Crystal into Celestial city. "Sorry about the long walk, I tend to wander pretty far from home. Anyway, we have this whole city to ourselves… other than the occasional virus carrier, but we have good weapons and a capable blastoise for that." It didn't take long for them to reach the biggest building that the small city had to offer, and Jenna unlocked the door with her key once she was in front of it. "We refitted the locks on these doors; my brother takes the house near the city's left entrance to keep watch on it. You'll meet him tomorrow." She entered and flipped on the light while letting Ray and Crystal enter after her. There were two beds, one on each side of the room. "You can take this house for the night, I'll take the one by the city's right entrance. We'll talk more tomorrow… night." Jenna told him before leaving and closing the front door behind her. 

Ray sighed and looked around at the virtually empty room, it must have been gutted out, all that was left was the green carpet on the floor and the beds of course. "Come on Crys'." Ray went over and sat on the bed that was by the door, it had both a white sheet and blanket layered over the mattress. Crystal hopped up beside him a moment later, and Ray slid his boots off before lying down on his back and patting his chest while grinning over at his Espeon. 

She wasted no time in padding over and laying where her trainer had specified, even placing her two front paws on his upper chest. 

"I'm so glad you're still with me Crystal, I'd never let a thing happen to you. Not as long as I'm here." He slowly traced his fingers up and down the sides of her ears while gazing down at her adorable and clearly tired face. Crystal was exhausted from their recent encounter - not to mention that it was still nightfall. Ray giving her physical affection only stacked upon how sleepy she was. "You can sleep, you'll be just fine." And she didn't doubt that, Crystal felt completely safe with him watching over her. She rested her cheek on top of his chest, and let out a soft exhale before closing her eyes. Ray draped his arms over her delicate body and closed his eyes as well, but couldn't stop thinking about his backpack. It was likely contaminated, though he had gotten lucky with everything he'd touched throughout the past months. But those items obviously weren't directly affected. Jenna had said something about the virus showing resistance to cold temperatures. Either way, that still meant he would have to travel back to Oreburgh in order to get the backpack in the first place. It really wasn't something Ray wanted to imagine at the moment, and so he'd think about it whenever he woke up.


	12. About the Rapids

Just as quickly as he fell asleep, Ray opened his eyes to the afternoon sun shining through the window. He'd wait until Crystal woke up before he would move at all. Ray looked down to see that she was tightly curled up and laying on her side while still resting on his stomach and chest. Her tail was draped over herself as well. Ray thought about Jenna while waiting out his Espeon. He had a ton of questions about the virus and how exactly she safely studied it in the first place. Ray would definitely ask and take in whatever useful information he could get. 

"Jen… you can't just bring people over here, we've been safe for an entire month now!" Her older brother was upset that she'd brought Ray to the small city, and rightfully so. He did have a point. They were both inside of the house that he slept in every night. 

"I know this, but he needed help-" 

"I knew you'd fucking say something like that… you can't trust anyone Jenna! I don't know how you're still so naive… I'm gonna go tell him to leave!" He threw on a shirt quickly, along with a hat to cover up his messy brown hair. 

Jenna let out a sigh of defeat, being just one year younger than her twenty year old brother still put him at a higher authority. He also had a rougher personality and was fairly taller than she was at average height, so Jenna didn't have it in her to stand up to him, especially in a situation like this. "No… I'll go tell him." She replied calmly and exited the house. It didn't take her more than half of a minute to reach the next building. "Ugh." Jenna stood in front of the door to the home that she let Ray stay in. What would she even say to him? After all that happened yesterday, it'd be heartless to just let him off, and he knew very little about the virus when it came to survival at that. Jenna raised her right hand and lightly knocked on the door. "It's Jenna!" 

The sound woke Crystal immediately; her ears perked as she slowly opened her tired eyes. 

"Hold on sweetheart..." Ray set his espeon on the bed beside him and got up, then walked over to the door and opened it. "Hey." He greeted the female that stood in front of him; this time she was without her utility belt. 

"Morning, come with me." If Jenna had to send him away, she'd at least give him the help he needed to live in such a harsh region. She led Ray to the house that she stayed in. There was something about him and his cute espeon that made her assume that he wasn't bad news. Maybe her brother was right, she could be stupid for holding any kind of trust for Ray, but Jenna would instead trust her own heart this time. "Inside." She entered through her front door, and Ray followed with Crystal trailing closely behind. 

He also caught a glimpse of the Blastoise that saved him last night standing by the right side of the house right before walking into the house. 

"My brother and I carved out a small basement in this house - a very cold one with an adjustable thermostat since we began studying the virus." She pulled up a hatch that was on the living room floor and motioned for him to follow as she went down the stairs. "Make sure you close it behind you!" 

And Ray did, right after Crystal padded down the first few steps. Once he was down, the cold air hit him almost immediately. He could even see his breath in front of him. "Weak under cold temperatures… right?" 

"Right." Jenna grinned and went over to a microscope that was on a counter by the wall. Other than a few counters, there were a few shelves and cabinets on and pushed up against the walls of the small room. "Over here, you can see one of the parasites I've been looking at recently. It's dormant under the current temperature though." Jenna stepped aside and welcomed him over. 

Ray made his way over to her while shivering and leaned down to look inside of the scope. The parasite was completely still and transparent other than its black veins. It was a bit stringy in shape as well, but also held some weight to it. it looked harmless, but was capable of overtaking an entire body. "How come they weren't slowed at all while chasing me in the cold weather last night?" Ray stood up again and looked beside him at Jenna. 

"The inside of a body helps keep them warm and secluded from any weather, and there were a ton of them inside on top of that. It would have taken much colder temperatures in order to freeze them." She giggled to herself after explaining. "Do I sound like a scientist at all? I'm not, I just remember what I found out about the virus." 

"It's helpful for sure, I probably wouldn't have gotten that far at all myself." Ray smiled a bit and soon looked away from her, her green eyes were pure, and a bit mesmerizing. 

Crystal had been watching from the stairs while lightly shivering, but suddenly looked up at the entrance to the basement because she heard footsteps. 

"Wait…" Jenna stared up at the platform, and that's when it began to open. "Damn, I'm in for it now…" She mumbled. 

"Jen, you down here?" Her brother asked, and that question was answered upon him seeing her once he got down the steps - along with Ray. "Jen… what is this?" Her older sibling exhaled deeply, seeming more disappointed than he was upset. 

"Chris… l was going to send him away, b-but I wanted to-" 

"I don't even want to hear it." Her brother then looked over at Ray and studied him for a good moment. He didn't seem to care much about Crystal, who was now sitting right beside Ray while eyeing her brother. "Who are you?" Chris asked Ray himself, and Ray would have to speak wisely. Not that he feared for his life or anything, but he didn't want a psybeam burned through Chris's chest if it could be avoided. 

"I was being chased by a group of the infected last night, and Jenna happened to be there to save me. She brought me back here to where it was safe for the night." Ray made sure to come off as nicely as possible. 

"Well, we don't take guests. I don't trust a soul anymore. You could be sick for all I know." Chris shook his head and shot a glare over at Jenna. 

"I don't blame you for that, and I'll go…" Ray didn't want to cause any trouble within Jenna's life. 

"Good, did you leave anything back where you slept?" Chris asked, and Ray was about to say no before Jenna answered for him. 

"He did!" Jenna nearly blurted out, and Ray quickly nodded in agreement in order to play along with whatever she was up to.

"All right, go get your stuff…  and leave."


	13. Back Into the Wild

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone that has passed chapter one already, I forgot to mention that you can follow Ray and Crystal's journey with a layout of Sinnoh's map. I'm following its details as accurately as I can.

Ray had just gotten back to the house; Jenna wasn't behind him at all, and he really hadn't left a thing behind - so he would have to wait. "That went better than expected, but we'll now have to start searching a lot more buildings since my backpack is still back in Oreburgh." He set Crystal down onto the bed and grinned down at her. She looked right back up at her trainer, and with such an innocent gaze in her eyes. "We'll be fine no matter what, as long as I have you at least..." Ray reached his right hand down and gently traced it down the espeon's back. 

Not a second later, and Ray finally heard a knock at the door. "There it is…" Ray went over and opened it to see Jenna, and she held a medium sized black cloth bag in her hands. 

"Let me in!" Jenna quickly squeezed past him and closed the door behind her. "I wanted to give you a few things before you left." Jenna first pulled a pistol out of her rear pocket, which Ray immediately recognized as his. "Here." She handed it over to him in an apparent and justified rush. 

He took it from her and placed it on the bed. 

"And…" Jenna pulled a compact rifle from behind her back and handed it to him by its black strap. 

"Uh?" Ray was taken back by her giving him an entire rifle. 

"Just… take it, okay? You'll need it. We have a ton of different weapons anyway. There's also water and a few pre loaded magazines inside of this bag for you." Jenna handed him the bag, and Ray hesitantly took it from her. 

"Why are you doing all of this?" He'd just met her last night, and her brother really didn't want Ray here on top of that. 

"I know you're genuine. I knew it as soon as I saw you… and I can't let someone like you go out there with nothing." Jenna took a deep breath and brushed a few strands of her back out of her face. "You should go now though, before this situation gets any worse. Goodbye Ray, and good luck to you both." She turned back around, exiting the room just as quickly as she entered it. 

"I guess that's that Crys'. We have to go now." Ray took a small peek into the pouch that was given to him. Sure enough, there were about five magazines for the rifle and the same amount of water bottles inside of it. He rested the rifle's strap over his left shoulder and let the weapon rest against his hip, slipped his pistol into his back pocket, and held the small bag in his right hand. "Come on, love." Ray motioned for his pokémon to follow after him as he exited the home. He closed the door behind Crystal and looked around at the silent city. "We still have daylight on our side… but that's just about the only thing we have on our side." 

Ray made sure to completely leave the city before stopping in order to check the map of Sinnoh that he kept in his pocket. He kneeled down by Crystal, who was curiously watching what her trainer was doing with erect ears. Ray slowly scanned the map with his eyes. "So… going back to Eterna isn't an option. I guess we could check out Veilstone. It's really close to Hearthome though, so we'll need to be cautious." Ray stood up and began to walk down route 210 with Crystal. And as they neared the next route, Ray stared down at Crystal trotting beside him. She seemed to be diligently seeking for trouble, with both her eyes and ears. She sure loved her trainer, and it was proven at every step of their journey. Crystal held both his hope and any remaining happiness that he had. Ray had lost his will to truly survive once his mother died - granted, he had no idea whether or not she actually did, but he'd never return to Sandgem in order to find out. 

After they'd gotten through the rainy environment that was route 215, Ray and Crystal arrived at the entrance to Veilstone in no time. Ray had a rifle to defend himself more effectively this time too, though he'd only trained himself to use his pistol thoroughly over the years. Rifles and shotguns? Not so much. But he would have to teach himself how to accurately shoot the rifle at some point, and it would just have to do. 

Just after entering the large city, Crystal would use her type ability to sense for any possible dangers that lurked about. This time, she did come across something abnormal - a few things in fact. There were pokémon somewhere nearby, but something about their aura made her feel very uneasy about them. Crystal suddenly jumped right in front of her trainer's path to block it, and would have let out a small yip in order to alert him, but couldn't risk making any loud noises. 

As a result, Ray did end up kicking the underside of her body with his boot, and then completely came to a stop after he did so. "Oh - sorry Crys'." Ray looked down at his Espeon, but said not another word after he saw her staring ahead. Her ears would twitch with every other second that passed. Ray kneeled down and gazed ahead at the huge city that was in front of them along with her, and spoke quietly. "What is it Crystal?"


	14. New Findings

Jenna turned up the dial on the thermostat, adjusting it so that the basement's environment would become warm. After that, she revisited the microscope and watched the parasite that was under it. As the room slowly got warmer, she noticed something different about its behavior. Revived from its mostly dormant state, its movement was quicker and held more agility. There was a small drop of blood that she'd placed on the wet mount prior to setting the parasite down on it under the microscope, and Jenna wanted to see whether or not it had grown to be more aggressive. The parasite was drawn to it quickly, and it took in the red liquid in seconds. It definitely had become more aggressive, its dark colored veins looked about ready to pop out of itself as it thrashed about. This had to be the beginning of its next stage within its constant evolution, and Jenna couldn't let Ray and Crystal aimlessly walk out into Sinnoh. She wouldn't be able to live with herself. 

Jenna jogged over to the thermostat, turned it back down so that the basement would cool back to its original state, and ran quickly up the stairs to exit. Once in her room, she took both her loaded pistol and cold black glove from her utility belt. Jenna made sure to grab a few extra magazines for her pistol and headed out of the front door. She was highly unequipped to leave Celestial, but this was something that Jenna had to do. She stood in the center path of all three houses, and there was both a right and left entrance to the city. "He wouldn't go back to Oreburgh…" at least she hoped he didn't, and with that in mind, Jenna started running in the direction of Veilstone city. 

"Crys', should we turn back?" Ray spoke quietly, his heart racing out of fear as he had no clue what to expect. 

Finally, Crystal looked back and up at Ray, and she nodded. 

"Okay… let's-" It was now far too late. About five pokémon appeared from behind a building up ahead, and upon squinting his eyes and closely inspecting them, he could see that they were houndoom. Ray slowly set the pouch down that Jenna gave him. "Crystal… Crystal, get behind me." 

But the espeon didn't budge, she didn't want to hide away and feel useless. 

"... Crystal, now!" Her ears flattened a bit, and she grudgingly took the few steps needed to stand behind her trainer. Ray knew better than to turn around and run. The houndoom would outrun him easily, and before Ray would shoot at them, he needed them closer. The pack would calmly walk toward the two, closing in on them both. Ray noticed that they were walking in a specific formation, and the houndoom in front was bigger than the ones behind it, its horns curved backward more so than them as well. That had to be their leader, and it stopped about ten steps away from Ray and Crystal. "Mmh…" Inside, Ray was terrified, but he didn't show not an ounce of fear on the outside.  
Since they were so close, Ray noticed that the houndoom had yellow eyes, as if a colored layer had glazed them over. But in reality, they were infected. 

Crystal was watching from behind her trainer, a petrifying glare present in her eyes as she stared at the houndoom. 

The leader of the pack took a few more steps toward Ray, and Ray kept his breathing steady while slowly snaking his hands downward and around his rifle. He didn't dare take his eyes off of the canine. 

The silent standoff didn't last for long though, as the leading houndoom began to start growling in a deep tone. 

Crystal, however, wasn't going to allow that. She stepped forward, her right front paw just a few inches in front of Ray while now standing by his right side. 

"Crystal…" Ray almost whispered in attempt to hold her back, but couldn't look down at her. 

The pack leader had apparently grown tired of the standoff altogether, and he opened his mouth, preparing a bright and powerful flamethrower. 

"Ohh no…" Ray had to act, but just as he began to raise his rifle, the Houndoom in front of him began to violently shake and loudly whimper. The others in the pack watched from behind. Ray looked down at Crystal and saw the gem on her forehead glow in its usual light blue and mist-like aura whenever she would use an ability. She was using psychic, and it was brutally vibrating the houndoom to its core. 

Meanwhile, the other canines had to defend their alpha; they immediately darted forward toward Ray and Crystal. "Lay on the psychic Crystal!" He told her while quickly cocking and raising the rifle, his right index finger just inches away from pulling the trigger. Ray kept the gun steady, inhaled deeply, and began to rapidly fire with his left hand and arm firmly keeping the recoil at bay. He wasn't the best with his accuracy, but Ray made it work, and in just seconds, the entire pack was on the ground. The few that weren't dead were desperately trying to get up on nearly immobilized bodies - or the virus was anyway, as the houndoom weren't truly alive. Ray had to spray them with a few more bullets to ensure that they were dead. 

The leading Houndoom was still frozen by the immense telekinetic power that stemmed from Crystal's psychic, but it was beginning to exhaust her. 

Ray made quick work of him, and with ease, shot the still target right in the middle of its head. 

Crystal finally let the canine's lifeless body fall onto the ground while she panted.

"Ray!" He heard a faint voice come from behind him, and since he was on high alert, he turned around quickly and saw someone running toward him.


	15. Back and Forth

"Is that?..." Ray stood up and saw the figure get closer with each passing second. "Jenna…" he mumbled to himself as she finally approached and stopped in front of him. 

"R-Ray!" She doubled over and caught her breath for a few moments before standing back up. 

"Jenna, what are you doing out here?" He studied her and saw that all she had on her was a pistol. 

"I-I studied the virus some more when you left, and I think it's becoming more dangerous. I came to tell you." 

"Jenna… why?" Ray had no problem with her caring, but it was very strange to him that she did to this point. 

"You wouldn't have survived out here for long. It's becoming too unsafe. I fear that our safe haven will also be attacked soon enough." She noticed the five houndoom bodies on the ground behind him. 

"Crystal and I took care of them… I'm glad you gave me this rifle." Ray knew that he would have been killed if he still had only his pistol with him. 

Jenna sighed and grabbed ahold of Ray's arm with her left hand. "Come back with me, I'll tell my brother what I found out… he'll have to understand." 

"You sure?" 

"If he doesn't… well, I'm not going to shove you out again. There's strength in numbers." 

Ray picked up the pouch and looked back at the infected canines that he had to slaughter; he didn't want to be alone either. Every second of their journey would have kept him on edge. Ray had Crystal lead just in case any trouble was nearby while they walked back to Celestial. 

Before they could even reach the city's entrance, Jenna saw Chris standing in front of it with Hydron by his left side. She was expecting the worst from him, and really disliked him sometimes because of how strict he was over her. They approached and stood a few feet away from her brother and the Blastoise. 

"Jenna… we talked about this already, what the f-" 

"I found something out, Chris." Jenna paused for a second. "The parasites are already growing to be more aggressive. We can't fight what it's becoming by ourselves, not if we're being realistic." 

"I don't need for you tell me what's possible or not, I already told him to leave!... And you gave him one of our damn rifles?!" Chris deeply sighed and closed his eyes tightly for a second. "Jenna, listen. If you're not going to follow my rules and jeopardize our safety, then I can't let you stay here." 

Jenna swallowed, that pierced right through her heart. It never helped that she was softer inside than she should be. "H-How could you say that to me?" She replied, her voice somewhat shaky.

Ray quietly watched from behind Jenna with Crystal standing next to him. 

"I won't allow you to bring that virus to us just because you want to trust everyone you come across!" Chris didn't shout, but he may as well have because of how loud his voice had risen. It lead Ray to believe that he was either highly frustrated, or just very quick to anger. 

The argument was cut short though, as the dreaded, ear-piercing sound of the warning siren was heard blaring all throughout Sinnoh once again. Everything fell silent. There was no more talking, and no one moved a muscle. It faded out in minutes, and the silence lingered for some time. 

"That's… scheduled to happen once per month." Ray finally did speak, and it made him wonder if the siren was still under an automatic schedule or not - not to mention how out of place and creepy it was.

Chris glanced over at Ray as he spoke, and shifted his view down to the rifle that hung from his shoulder. "Give me the gun." Jenna's brother took a few steps toward Ray, and Ray didn't resist. He handed over the rifle that never belonged to him. "Now, let's go Jenna." Chris commanded and pointed back toward route 215. "You, get lost. This is your last chance." 

"Chris, he's not a danger to us… I-I know I gave him the rifle, but he didn't kill us with it when he could have. He never hurt me either… when he could have." Jenna tried to plead with her stubborn older brother some more. Chris looked at his sister, and then back to Ray. He exchanged glances a few times. 

"... You have anything else on you?" Chris asked while this time eyeing both him and the espeon closely. 

Ray handed over his pistol, though he would feel unsafe while completely unarmed. 

"What's in the pouch?" Chris questioned. 

Ray had completely forgotten about the ammo that Jenna had stored in there for him. He sifted through the bag and gave Chris all five of the magazines. "The rest is just water." Ray said, but it didn't look like Chris was buying that. 

"I gave it to him…" Jenna added while looking down and the ground in apparent shame, but Ray was glad that she said something. 

"He's your responsibility Jenna. I'm done; you disappoint me." Chris told her before shaking his head and walking back to his house with Hydron stomping behind. 

"Told ya I wouldn't let you go back out there. We should be safe for tonight… I'm not sure about tomorrow." Jenna took a deep breath and looked up at the early evening sky. "You should go rest for now, but if you want, you can come over to my house in an hour. I cook when I can. I also have pokéchow for Crystal to eat as well." Jenna offered, and Ray didn't realize how hungry he was and how hungry Crystal likely was as well until she brought that up. 

"Of course… and thank you Jenna, you're a great person" 

"I try to be, it's just hard nowadays. See you soon Ray. The door to the center house is unlocked by the way." She smiled and walked ahead to her house. 

"Today was interesting, wasn't it Crys'?" Ray leaned down and scooped the espeon up, holding her against his chest while walking back over to the middle house. 

Crystal looked up at her trainer's face and gave it a soft and affectionate nuzzle with her cheek. 

"Thank you for saving the day… again. I don't know what I'd do without you."


	16. A Quick Session

Ray closed and locked the door to the house once he entered with Crystal and set both her and the pouch he held onto the bed. He let out a quiet sigh and took his boots off. He needed a change of clothes at some point, but something told him that he wouldn't be getting that anytime soon - especially with Jenna's brother acting the way he has been. Ray also decided to take his jeans off as well, even though he'd put them back on very soon to meet Jenna. 

Crystal sat on the edge of the bed and watched him, that was what she spent a lot of her time doing. 

Ray neatly folded his pants up for now and tossed them near the bottom of the bed. "Here Crystal." She had to be thirsty. Ray definitely was. He reached into the pouch, took out one of the water bottles and opened it. Ray then kneeled down on the floor in front of her and held the bottle up to her mouth. The way Crystal leaned forward and put her open mouth to the bottle brought a grin out of Ray. He slowly tilted it upward and let Crystal drink until she pulled away from it. He then drank about half of it himself. "Tell me whenever you get thirsty, okay?" Ray looked up at his espeon while she sat on the bed and set the bottle down on the floor.

She gave him a quick nod in response and gazed down at him. It was odd to Crystal for her to be sitting above her trainer. 

Ray placed his hands on her hips and rested his forehead on her soft chest as if the espeon were his girlfriend. He felt such warmth and comfort while touching her. Ray sat there for just a few more moments while Crystal allowed him. It wasn't like she could hug him back or anything. 

But once her trainer was finally in bed, laying on his back with a blanket covering just the lower half of his stomach while he silently thought to himself - well, how Ray held her hips may have sparked something inside of her. In her lower regions to be exact. Perhaps she'd longed for it after the first time he mated her. Crystal lifted her head up from where she was laying, right next to him. She wasn't too sure on how to approach this either, though there really weren't too many ways to do so when you were a pokémon. Crystal sat up with a bit of hesitance and saw that Ray had already turned his head to look at her. There was no turning back now. 

"You okay Crystal?" 

Yes, she was fine, she was perfectly fine. The espeon placed one paw on top of her trainer's chest, then the other, and finally sat on his lower stomach right above his boxers. 

Ray stared up at her, trying to figure out what exactly it was that she wanted. 

That was answered once she moved her rear end backward some to push a small amount of the cover off. Afterward, Crystal sat right on top of his boxers, gazing down rather innocently at Ray with perked ears. 

"Crys'..." If there was enough light shining in through the window, his light blush that had spread across his cheeks would be visible. She wasn't usually this assertive toward him. "Y-You aren't in heat… right?" Ray would have never thought that a pokémon like Crystal would lust outside of heat.

The espeon shook her head, and just to confirm how she felt, Crystal would push her rear down into his lap. 

"Ahn… you want to? Again?" Ray was glad he'd at least taken his pants off this time. 

Crystal nodded, and she couldn't wait either. The thought alone of feeling her trainer throb inside of her again made her shiver. This deepened once she felt him begin to grow erect under her. 

"Let me…" Ray reached his right hand down and slid his boxers off with some work. Crystal looked back at her trainer's member and desperately wanted that inside of her tight hole. She scooted back a bit and laid down on Ray's stomach, her front paws resting at the start of his chest. 

Once she was in position, Ray gently gripped onto her hips and inner thighs and raised her rear so that her vaginal entrance was accurately positioned over the tip of his erection. "Ready for me sweetheart?" It would obviously be a lot easier to enter her since it was their second time, but he'd never just ram into her without warning. 

Of course she was ready, Crystal wasted no time with her usual nod. 

Ray slowly lowered her rear onto his fully erect cock and softly gasped as his espeon's constricting and fairly wet walls surrounded his shaft. "Oh, C-Crys'... such a good espeon…" He gazed at his pokémon's sleek body and adorable face while inside of her pussy, and the sight of her alone was a huge turn on for him. 

Crystal's ears had slightly flattened upon Ray pushing his stiff member into her near soaking and warm womanhood, and her front paws pressed into his chest while she shyly looked up to meet her trainer's eyes. 

Ray had given her time to adjust, and now he'd start moving. He began to slowly raise and lower her hips up and down onto his lightly throbbing shaft, softly breathing through his mouth as the espeon's ridged and slick walls slid alongside his cock. He made sure to keep his eyes on his espeon. 

Crystal was enjoying this very much, her right eye winced shut, and her mouth open as she already began to quietly pant. Constant waves of weak pleasure would surge throughout her body each time her trainer's member would be slowly pushed up deep into her walls. 

"Nnh... I'm gonna pound you s-so hard Crys'..." Ray spoke in between his uneven breaths while continuing to watch his hot espeon's every movement and facial expression; he wanted to do so much more to her. Ray shifted his body under her and spread his legs some so that he'd be able to thrust into her. He tightened his grip on her hips and began to thrust his hips upward at a fast pace. The sudden increase in speed brought them both a lot more pleasure. Ray arched his back as he pounded up into Crystal's wet pussy while lowering her hips onto him in rhythm, spurting some pre-cum into her pulsating walls while letting out a few soft gasps. 

Her trainer's cock felt amazing being shoved in and out of her. The rate of Crystal's panting had gotten faster, her paws being instinctively pressed into his chest as she was being fucked roughly. She even let out a few subtle moans under her breath. 

The bed shook under them, and the wet sound of Ray thrusting into Crystal's wet womanhood was heard all throughout the otherwise silent room. "Sweetheart… C-Crystal!" Ray desperately moaned out his espeon's name. His head rested back against the pillow and his eyes now closed tightly while he continued to shove his heavily throbbing erection in and out of her walls as they tightly clenched around him. 

Crystal's body tensed up often, her tail draped across Ray's left leg, her ears flattened against her head and her eyes winced shut. He was hitting her G-spot every now and then as his cock slid in and out of her with ease. She also felt how tightly Ray was holding on to her hips and pushing them down into his thrusts, but the amount of pleasure she was currently feeling overtook everything else. All Crystal wanted was for her trainer to keep pounding her as good as was. She treasured each time his shaft would spread out her entrance and glide against her addicting walls. 

"I'm g-gonna cum, love! Your pussy is s-so good…" Ray gasped a few times in between his hitched breaths and thrusted his cock in and out of his pokémon as hard as he could. This time, Ray held her hips up and in place as he continued fucking Crystal.

This completely drove her over the edge. Crystal laid her forehead down onto his stomach and heavily panted. The espeon had fallen into a state of pure bliss, and her orgasm quickly approached. She felt herself grow hotter and feel weaker by the second as her trainer's erection was shoved in and out of her soaking womanhood so roughly; rubbing against her sensitive walls.

Ray's thrusts had become wetter since he'd released a lot more pre into her. He let out a soft groan, being as close as he was to his climax. Ray pushed his hips upward a few more times, his erection deep inside of her, and quickly pulled Crystal's hips down onto his wildly throbbing cock as his climax suddenly overtook him. Ray took a deep breath and held it while humping upward against her entrance, his warm fluid filling the espeon up as she rode her own climax out while exhaling deeply. 

She tried her best to roll her hips against Ray's member with him holding onto her so tightly. After they'd both cooled down and caught their breath, Ray slowly pulled Crystal up to his upper chest and deeply kissed her lips while holding her sides. He loved her so much. She hadn't responded to the kiss very much as Crystal was in a very weakened state. She'd be safe in his arms though. She always would be.


	17. Lurking About

With not very much time left to recover from their quickie, Ray had to get up while still feeling rather weak himself. Crystal had fallen asleep on the bed by his side, and he wouldn't wake his pokémon until he was ready to leave. In order to stall himself, Ray took his time getting dressed and fitting on his boots. Once he was done, he sat on the edge of the bed and watched Crystal steadily breathe. He reached his right hand over to the middle section of the bed, tracing his fingers across the outer area of her ear while it instinctively twitched in response. Ray hated that he had to wake her, but he wanted her to eat. "Sorry, love…" Ray lightly sighed and slid his hands under both the lower and upper half of her body. He then picked her up and closely held Crystal to his chest with her underside facing upward. 

This woke her of course, and her eyes would soon slowly open to the blurry night sky, littered with bright lights. As everything fell into focus, Crystal saw it replaced by beautiful stars overtop a clear sheet of darkness. 

"Pretty, right?" Ray had been gazing up at the same sky for a moment before he continued the walk to Jenna's house. He arrived in no time, standing in front of her door. For some reason, Ray felt nervous about knocking. It had to be because he wasn't used to any other company beside Crystal's. He did like Jenna though, so there was no way he would be turning back at all. Ray slowly set Crystal down onto the ground and knocked on Jenna's door without thinking anything else of it. 

He didn't have to stand out there for long either, because she opened the door within just a few moments after his initial knock. "There you are, come in!" Jenna grinned at him and stepped aside to give him and Crystal room to walk in. "I'm just finishing up, but everything's done… even the poké chow." Jenna seemed to be in deep thought as she spoke, she was probably relaying everything in her head to make sure that she remembered it all. "Just sit in the dining room and wait. I'll get everything together." Jenna closed and locked the door behind them; then jogged over to the kitchen. 

Ray watched her disappear around the hallway's corner. It was odd seeing her dressed so casually. She wore a red t-shirt and black pajama pants, along with some matching colored socks. Her hair was bundled up into a ponytail, and that was likely because she'd been cooking. Ray began walking down to the dining room with Crystal, it was the room right before the kitchen. He sat down in one of the four chairs that surrounded the rounded table, then placed Crystal in his lap and pushed her up near the table. 

"Okay… you ready? Sorry for the wait." Jenna exhaled tiredly and walked into the dining room after a few more minutes. She held two white ceramic plates in her hands which she gently set down onto the table. "Hold on, let me get Crystal's." Jenna grinned happily and quickly walked back into the kitchen. Once she returned and had given both of her guests their serving, along with bottles of water, they would all begin to eat at their meal. And It took just under an hour for all three of them to finish, casual chatter included. Jenna was easy to talk to and rarely let a conversation turn stale or awkward in any way. 

After everything had been cleaned up, and Ray helped with that, they ended up sitting on the couch in her living room under dim light. Crystal sat on the couch next to Ray while he leaned on its left arm. Jenna was on the opposite side. 

"You said the siren only goes off once a month right? I never kept track of it." Jenna asked while leaning back against the cushion and looking over at Ray. 

"That's how it's been scheduled ever since the outbreak first started, so it was very abnormal for it to go off today." It definitely scared him, it was something that he could lose sleep over. 

"Do you know where it's located?... the siren." 

"No clue, but it sounded the loudest when I had heard it for the first time. It was when the outbreak had first started spreading. When I lived in Sandgem town… it could be somewhere in that general vicinity." That was an educated guess. Ray still couldn't give her an exact location. 

It did make Jenna wonder what could possibly be at the source if someone had broken its schedule. "I used to live in snowpoint city. My brother and I were the only two that survived the outbreak in that city. Everything and everyone else I knew was dead - even my pokémon. I'm guessing something similar happened to you?" Jenna didn't take her eyes off of Ray, and was glad that she didn't since he'd only given her a silent nod. Maybe it was too painful for him to speak about. 

"So… what exactly did you find out about the virus?" Ray changed the subject so there wouldn't be any awkward silence between them while he repeatedly traced his right hand up and down Crystal's back. 

"It's hard to pinpoint anything since I don't have enough advanced equipment, I can just see its odd behavioral development and its reactions whenever I run tests on it… not much." 

"Well, you sounded like a genius when I last heard you spill out the virus's weaknesses and stuff. Don't sell yourself short!" Ray tried to lighten up the mood, and it seemed to work. He'd managed to get a giggle out of Jenna. 

"I guess, but I'm still no scientist!" She yawned and covered her mouth shortly after she spoke, which Ray noticed. It was beginning to get late anyway. 

"Well, thank you for dinner Jenna. That comes from Crystal as well." He said as he gave the top of his espeon's head a soft few pats with his hand. 

She winced from him doing that, Crystal wasn't a fan of head pats. 

"It's no problem, we'll call it a proper welcome." Jenna grinned and watched him get up from the couch. 

"Of course… goodnight now Jen!" Ray said, and heard the line repeated back to him before he exited her residence. He was hit with a light breeze as soon as he stepped foot outside. "Come on Crys'." Ray made sure she followed as he walked back to their home. 

Meanwhile, a cloaked male and four others, two of each gender by his side were crouched down a good distance away from Celestic city's right entrance. "Easy targets… the kid lead us right to the gold." 

"Yeah, really easy… especially the girl." One of the men on his right replied while snickering. 

"We ain't here for her. We need the weapons. Quit acting immature… we'll act as soon as the sun rises."


	18. What the Next Day Held

"You tell us where all of it is… or you die!" Ray woke up to loud commotion that he heard outside. It was just after dawn. He sat up on the bed and peeked out of the window. There were five people outside that surrounded an unarmed Chris right outside of his house. They people were all completely shielded by gray cloaks. One held a pistol to Chris's head while the others watched the surrounding area. 

As Ray had just begun to take in what was going on, he saw Jenna run outside with only a pistol and her usual black clothing, which was undoubtedly a huge mistake. But he knew that she just wanted to save her brother. Ray gazed upon the event; then looked down at his espeon that had just woken up. Did he want to risk his life and go out there too? Not really, but he couldn't let Jenna handle that on her own, especially after all that she'd done for him. "Stay here Crys'..." Ray said and hopped out of bed. 

"Hands up, and drop the weapon, now!" One of the cloaked females shouted as Jenna approached. Jenna didn't want to disobey them and possibly cause Chris's death, and so she tossed the pistol onto the ground and dropped to her knees with her hands raised above her head. She looked next to Chris's home and saw that Hydron was laying on the ground. Hopefully, the Blastoise was just unconscious. 

"Where are the damn guns!? Tell us already!" Their leader pressed the barrel of the pistol into Chris's head. Chris wasn't responding, and the group was beginning to grow impatient. 

"Just tell them Chris…" Jenna watched from a distance and whispered to herself. 

The boss looked up and temporarily took his focus off of Chris once Ray exited the building. "It's that kid…" It sure was, and Ray was completely unarmed at that. There was nothing he could do to defend himself. "Over here, now!" His voice boomed, and of course, Ray had to listen. 

He walked over and ended up kneeling just a few feet away from Jenna. 

"So none of you three know where the stash is? We aren't here to play games you know?!" The leader ordered both of his males to go and stand behind Ray and Jenna. "That's fine, but this won't end well for any of you." As he continued, Ray happened to notice that whomever was standing behind Jenna had taken to touching her a bit. The man subtly ran his hands across the back and sides of her neck, and Jenna had to take it. She closed her eyes in order to keep herself contained. 

Ray so badly wanted to instantly put a stop to that, but he wouldn't dare move under the current circumstances. He at least wouldn't let him do a thing more to her, Jenna deserved nothing like that. 

"Last fucking chance, I-" The cloaked male look straight ahead, past Ray, and saw an espeon. The same one Ray had told to stay inside. 

Crystal had no clue what was going on, she only saw her trainer and Jenna being held down by a group. 

"Bring that pokémon to me!" The leader ordered, and one of the females began walking toward Crystal with a rifle in hand. 

Crystal desperately wanted to attack, but was smart enough to know that she was greatly outnumbered. The espeon let herself get carried over and dropped next to the leader. He then grabbed and bunched up the fur on the back of her neck, then pointed the pistol down at her lower back. 

Ray felt his heart drop, and it took everything he had in him not to shed a tear or mindlessly run over to her. 

"I'll assume that this little pokémon means something to one or all of you three. If not, you'll just have to watch it bleed out either way." The leader shrugged and pressed the barrel of the pistol to Crystal's body, which made her flinch. Her eyes held visible fear, and it broke Ray's heart, but as much as he wanted it to be, Crystal's fate wasn't up to him. "Now, tell me where… you hold supplies!" 

As Chris was questioned again, Jenna begged for her brother to answer in her head. It wasn't worth a life. She knew exactly where Chris stored their weapons, but Jenna didn't want to blurt it out unless she had to. 

Chris still wouldn't respond, he simply looked down at the ground in silence. 

"Hm, well, I warned you." The man cocked the pistol, and Ray held his breath. 

"W-Wait!" Jenna exclaimed, and the man lowered his pistol while looking over at her. "I-I know where the weapons are kept…" She felt Chris glaring at her from across the way. If Jenna told, her brother would most likely hate her for good afterward, and she wouldn't blame him for it. But Jenna wouldn't watch a poor espeon slowly suffer from a bullet wound - Ray's espeon at that. 

"Finally, you give in. Now, where exactly is the location?" Jenna felt her brother's eyes on her even harder, and she knew that she had to choose between her sibling or Ray in such a short amount of time. "In the basement of the house we're in front of. Entrance is… under the fifth floorboard…  as soon as you walk in." Jenna swallowed after she spilled the location. 

"You two stay here!" The leader told the two males standing behind Jenna and Ray while he took both of his females with him into Chris's house. 

Ray immediately called Crystal over to him once they left and hugged her body tightly while sitting her in his lap. His espeon was shaking, and for that alone, Ray could have killed them all.


	19. Locating the Source

Ray, Crystal, Jenna, and Chris sat outside for about twenty minutes before the raiders finally exited Chris's house. Most of the supplies were bagged, but some were stuffed in their pockets. "See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?" The leader chuckled and happily sighed. "That's all we wanted. We'll be on our way now. It was nice doing business with ya!" While on their way out, they made sure to take Jenna's pistol with them as well. 

They were now truly left with nothing. 

Everyone sat still in silence and let a few minutes pass, but Chris broke that. Without saying a single word, he stood up and walked back into his home. 

What upset Ray about that was that he didn't even attempt to check on Jenna. He was probably upset with her, but she was still his sister. "Jenna…" Ray didn't want to let Crystal go, but he had to make sure that Jenna was okay. "Just… wait a sec Crys'." He softly set his pokémon down onto the ground and went over to sit in front of Jenna. "Are you okay?" Ray would calmly ask while looking at her with concern, and as soon as he did, she began to cry, tears already beginning to stream down her cheeks as her eyes welled up with them. "Jen…" He wasn't sure how to help her, but he figured a hug would be a nice start. 

As Ray went to embrace her, she leaned back in order to avoid it. "Don't…" Jenna wiped her eyes with her right hand and sniffled. 

"I was just trying to-" He began, but she cut him off. 

"Don't you get it Ray? He touched me. I could be infected…" 

"Jenna… don't say that. You don't know that for sure." Ray nearly reached his hand out to hold her shoulder, but stopped himself. 

"They touched Crystal too… and then you touched Crystal. We don't know who has what." Jenna slowly stood up and watched the group of people that stole everything from them soon disappear down route 210.

Ray stared back at his espeon and saw her grooming herself with her tongue. Jenna was right, two of the raiders had their hands on Crystal. "There… there has to be a way to test it, right? Maybe we can catch it early if we do have it." They were all dead if those raiders had the rapids. 

"I don't know. Not that it would matter anyway, I don't have a cure for it." Jenna wiped her eyes some more and looked over at Hydron. The blastoise still wasn't moving, and she felt too emotionally weak to go check whether or not he was alive. It would break her even more. 

"Jen, we can't just act like this isn't a big deal. Aren't you scared?" 

"Of dying? Not anymore." She replied. 

"No, Jenna, of suffering… of dying painfully and becoming another host for those parasites to control." 

Jenna fell silent for a moment. She didn't like the idea of being slowly eaten out from the inside; rotting away. "What do you want to do then? We know virtually nothing about this… this s-stupid fucking virus - and…" She was clearly holding back the urge to cry even more now. The tone of her voice was shaky and unstable. 

"The siren. We can try to source it." Ray knew that locating it would be a longshot, and Sinnoh was getting more dangerous with each passing day, but it was also their only hope at finding anyone that knew about the rapids before it was too late. 

"What if it's a trap? What if whoever is there wants to lure us over?" Jenna's theory made sense, but she could be wrong at the same time. 

"There's… that possibility, but this is our only hope. I don't want to end up like the rest of these people out here. Disgusting raiders, infected people… and I can't let Crystal die." Ray was serious about this search, but Jenna looked as if she'd already given up. "I'm going…  I'm going to try and find it. If I die out there, at least I'll know that I tried." Ray told her firmly and turned around to go pick up Crystal. 

"Ray!... you don't even have a weapon!" She sighed, knowing that she couldn't get to him. Jenna watched him head back inside the middle house with Crystal for now. She looked over at her brother's house, and it just hit her how much Jenna feared him. He hadn't really shown kindness toward her after the outbreak. It was probably anger. Chris could be deeply upset in general that everyone else that he loved died. Jenna didn't truly know him anymore, and after she just gave away their weapons away to some random raiders to save a pokémon's life? Chris was obviously better off without her. 

Jenna went back inside of her home, thinking of yet another decision that she had to make. Jenna would either have to stay here with Chris, or venture out into Sinnoh with Ray and Crystal.


	20. Fed Up

"Crystal… I told you to stay inside. You never listen to me!" Ray slightly raised his voice at his espeon while she looked up at him from the bed with flattened ears. 

She hated being scolded by him, but knew that she deserved it for disobeying him. Crystal just hated feeling useless, and she never wanted her trainer to go through any dangerous situation alone.

"You could be infected now. I could be infected! Why can't you just listen Crystal?!" Ray closed his eyes tightly and wiped them with his left hand. He didn't want to cry in front of her, but the very thing he'd been trying to avoid just may be happening. And even if they weren't infected, Sinnoh was becoming too hostile of an environment to live in. Ray was done trying to survive here. He came to the realization that there was no way he'd be able to outlive the virus. He'd either catch it or be killed by anything or anyone that had it. There were no happy endings here, there was only pain and misery left. "We're leaving. We're going to find that siren. I'm done with this region." Ray pulled out his map, opened it, and sighed after looking over it. "Sandgem…" He quietly mumbled under his breath. That's where he had to go, it's where he'd first heard the siren - and that was also his hometown, where he'd last seen his mother before having to leave her behind. "Let's go." Ray folded and stuffed the map back into his pocket and exited the house with Crystal padding behind him. It was now late afternoon, and it would take about a day or two to get all the way to Sandgem if they didn't run into any trouble. He began to walk toward Celestic city's left entrance. 

"Ray! Wait!" He turned around and saw Jenna running toward him again, and it made him grin a little. "There's nothing left for me in Sinnoh anymore. It's all a lost cause now. I-- I want to go with you." Jenna said after she stopped in front of him. 

"You sure? It won't be a very safe journey." Ray warned, and she nodded. 

"Nothing here will be safe soon enough Ray. I want to get out of here." She was right, and Ray was glad that she'd chosen to come along with him and Crystal. He suddenly tensed up and looked past her at Chris's house. Chris was walking toward them with… a rifle in his hands. Ray had no idea what his intentions were this time - or where he'd gotten the weapon that he was holding for that matter, but he wasn't expecting for Chris to do any good with it. 

Crystal was one step ahead of Ray, already crouched down into a stance of attack as she watched his every move. 

Once Chris was close enough, about a few feet away, he took the rifle's strap from off of his shoulder and handed it out to Ray. "Take it with you. They didn't check the attic for this. It's my last." He said, and Ray hesitantly grabbed onto the gun, pulling it out of Chris's hands. 

"Chris… why don't you-" Jenna was about to offer for him to come along, but her brother shook his head. 

"I don't want to. I have nothing left in my life anymore. I lost all of it months ago... and Jenna, you deserve better. You deserve so much better than me." Chris then looked over at Ray. "And she was right about you. You take good care of my sister, because I couldn't." 

Ray nodded; he sure would. "Thank you…" He wouldn't argue with Chris's decision to stay behind. He understood it completely. They all watched Chris head back into his house in silence. Ray now knew that Chris wasn't a bad person, but his emotions and mind were eternally messed up, and he couldn't ever trust a soul again. The outbreak had really affected him. "You two ready?" Ray asked, and again, he saw a few streams of tears flowing down Jenna's cheeks as she stared at her brother's house. This time, he did hug her. He suddenly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled Jenna's body close to his. 

"R-Ray!" She gasped as soon as he did, but didn't try to fight it. She quickly found herself leaning her chest against his and taking a deep breath while she closed her eyes. Jenna needed comfort more than she thought she did. 

Ray let her go after a full minute and looked over at Celestic city's exit. "Let's go." 

This time, Crystal didn't lead, but kept by her trainer's right side, she was ready to follow any order or command given to her. 

Ray only had one magazine and thirty shots inside of the black rifle, he had to use it wisely. Crystal would be of great assistance as well, but she couldn't be reckless. 

He had to protect his espeon; he had to protect Jenna, and with his own life, he would.


	21. Eterna Forest

With fortunately no trouble present, the small group of three made it to Eterna just before early evening. They still had enough time to cover more ground before the day ended, and that would get them to Sandgem town a lot sooner. 

"So… we may have a small problem." Ray said while looking over the map as they stood in the middle of Eterna city. 

"What is it?" Jenna looked over his shoulder at the map. 

"Well… we have to get to Sandgem, and that gives us two options. We either pass through Oreburgh… or take Eterna forest." Ray looked back at Jenna, asking her for input with his eyes. 

"Oreburgh is the city that you were running away from when I found you… right?" 

"Mhm; it'd be a risk to take that route." Ray replied. 

"So, that basically leaves us with Eterna forest." Jenna didn't like the idea of walking through a dark forest whilst anyone or anything could possibly be lurking behind its trees. 

Ray leaned down and placed his right hand on Crystal's back. "As always, I need you to be on watch for anything strange… but times five this time." Ray didn't want them to end up trapped inside of the forest with anything that had the rapids. 

Crystal nodded without hesitation, it was one of the things she was best at. 

"Good… come on." Ray lead both females through the rest of Eterna city. He'd always remember it as the first place he saw zombified people. The lifeless bodies were still on the ground from the last time him and Crystal were here. There were also stacked supplies outside a few of the houses, which meant that the city currently wasn't vacant. Crystal didn't sense any living creature or being at the time though, so whoever it was must have left for a while. "Here we are. Just have to get through this forest, and then we'll be at Floaroma city." Ray tried to look on the bright side. It'd all be over quickly if they were able to traverse through the forest fast enough. He pulled the rifle's switch back so that it would be ready to fire at any moment. "Ready? Just stay close to me, we can't afford to get separated." 

He lead on into the entrance of Eterna forest. Hundreds of trees surrounded them in all directions and blocked out nearly all of the remaining sunlight. It was a cold, dark, and a naturally eerie forest, and the virus being existent didn't help at all. 

As they silently walked through the forest, Crystal kept her ears perked and used her type abilities in order to search for any entity within close range. She did pick up something after just a few moments, and it made her feel immediately sick. There had to be more victims of the virus nearby. Crystal nudged Ray's leg in order to let him know. 

"Great…" He knew that his espeon was warning him of something, and stopped to actively looked around out of newfound paranoia. 

"What is it?" Jenna glanced at Ray as he quit walking. 

"I think Crystal senses something. I knew this wouldn't go without trouble…" And that's when Ray saw it. All three of them did. About ten dustox flew out from behind the trees ahead. "I hope those aren't infected. Get down… just in case." Ray crouched, and Jenna followed his action. "I'd rather not shoot if I don't have to. It'll only attract an entire horde of whatever else is in here." Ray spoke quietly as he watched the pokémon roam about. 

The group of dustox fortunately never took notice to the uninfected group and went on their way after a while. 

"Can we go now, Crystal?" Ray asked his espeon. They could, Crystal sensed nothing else that was dangerous for miles, but that could change at any moment. "All right…" Ray stood back up, and the three continued their walk through the forest. As they reached the halfway point, Ray saw three decaying bodies sprawled out across the ground in close proximity to each other. But not even the dead could be trusted. He kept the rifle pointed right at them as he took silent steps around them, and he made sure Crystal and Jenna were right behind him. "I wonder who killed them…" Ray didn't really want to think about it, but his question just might have been answered anyway. 

Ahead of them, and unfortunately blocking their only exit, was a Tauros. An odd pokémon to see inside of Eterna forest, but it was likely infected, and the virus probably didn't care where it traversed. "I may have to shoot this time…and if I do, take Crystal and run when I say." Ray told Jenna while slowly raising the rifle in order to aim it at the standing Tauros. He still wasn't a good shot with it; so he held his breath and kept steady aim. The tauros looked like it would charge forward at any given moment - but the standoff was quickly interrupted by the rising sound of Sinnoh's siren. "There it is again…" Ray lowered the rifle and looked up as if he could see the noise. When he returned his gaze to the where the tauros once was, it was no longer there. 

"It probably ran away, but now's our chance!" Jenna snapped Ray out of his focused state and tugged on his arm. 

"R-Right, let's go!"


	22. Harsh Feelings

"We're out!" Ray huffed and caught his breath while looking back at the forest. 

"The siren went off in our favor. I'm just glad I came along. That siren has to mean something." Jenna also stared back at Eterna forest. The only thing that currently ate at her emotions was that Chris was guaranteed to die back in Celestial. 

"I am too, and we're going to find that siren… but it is getting late. We should spend the night in Floaroma. Come on Crys'!" Again, Ray lead his small group forward to Floaroma town. The first thing that was noticed when they arrived was that the once beautiful flowers that covered most of the town's ground were now withered up and dead. "Well, that's depressing…" Ray gazed upon the lifeless flowers. He remembered when the colorful town was sprawling with trainers and pokémon. "Any danger here Crystal?" Ray asked her. 

There was none that she could find within the town - other than a few beings that faintly felt like they were quite far away. There was no reason to alert him of what wasn't immediate danger. The Espeon glanced up at her trainer and shook her head. 

"Okay… let's take one of the houses for the night then." Ray walked over to the house that was by the pokémon center with Jenna and Crystal following and tried to open the door - but it was locked. He didn't want to make Crystal use her psychic again to unlock it either. "Hm…" Ray also didn't want to cause any damage to the door since they had to sleep inside of the house overnight. "Jenna, could you maybe check the windows around the house?" He asked her. There had to be an easier way inside. 

"Mhm!" Jenna jogged off and looked around both sides of the house. "Ray!" She called his name after a few moments, and he quickly went over to the right side. 

"Found something?" 

"Yeah, this window was open a bit. I just pulled it up the rest of the way." Jenna shrugged and hopped inside of the bedroom. 

Ray made sure to pick Crystal up and climb inside with her. "We can search the pokémart tomorrow. For tonight, we need to stay in." He sighed and closed the window, making sure to lock it behind them. All that was left was to check around the house, and both Ray and Jenna did. There were a few new stray bottles of water lying around that could be benefited from - and a few stale snacks that weren't nearly as desirable. The house did have two bedrooms though, and Jenna stayed in the room that they entered the house from. Ray took the one across from it with Crystal. 

He was lying on his back on top of the blanketed mattress with his espeon curled up next to him. His rifle was placed at the bottom of the bed. Ray thought about how alone Jenna may have been feeling while he stared up at the ceiling. Her and her older sibling may not have had the strongest relationship, but now she had absolutely no one. Chris was gone. Ray would at least go check on her. He slowly got up so that he wouldn't wake Crystal at all and silently made his way over to Jenna's closed door. He'd fortunately taken off his boots before bed, so his steps were soft. It felt odd to be standing at her door, and again, a part of Ray thought about simply walking away and forgetting about it - but he had to go through with this. Ray raised his right hand and lightly knocked on the door. There was a beat, and then he faintly heard her voice. 

"Ray?" 

"Yeah, it's me!" He replied. 

"You can come in…" And with her permission, he opened the door and left it slightly cracked open behind him. "Sorry to bother you, I…  just wanted to check on how you felt." Ray tried to explain himself so that his reason to invade her privacy wasn't too odd. 

"I'm not sure how to feel. It's all mixed… and then I've also been feeling emotionless at times too." Jenna sat up in her bed and leaned her back against the headboard. 

"Do you think you made a good decision?" Ray went over and sat down on the edge of the bed by Jenna. 

"I don't know. It… it was his choice to stay behind, but I left him." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to keep from crying at all. 

"Jen, there was nothing you could do about that. I know that loss will always be there. We all hold onto something, but don't blame yourself for it." 

"That's not easy… I just - I don't know what to do with myself." Jenna wiped her eyes with her right hand and exhaled. 

Ray scooted just a bit closer to her and sat on her bed some more; he then opened his arms for her. He didn't want to awkwardly ask her if she wanted to hug it out, and the worst thing she could do was reject it. 

But she didn't, Jenna moved up and fell into his arms again, hugging his waist with her arms. "This is the second time you've hugged me, Ray…" 

"I know." 

"I could have the virus…" 

"I know." 

"So why do it?" 

"If one of those raiders had it, that means they all did, and that means we all would too Jenna."


	23. The Wrong Outcome

Ray's eyes shot open to the ring of the siren. It sounded a bit louder than it had when they were in Eterna forest, and it seemed to be going off a lot more often. They were close, and were probably running out of time. He sat up and looked down at Crystal, who was still asleep while sprawled out onto her back. It was dawn; a good time to start traveling. "Crys'... Crystal!" 

She quickly rolled over onto her stomach and yawned. 

"Sorry to wake you sweetheart, but we have to go now. We can't waste any time." Ray leaned down and gave her a kiss on top of her forehead before slipping into his jeans and slinging his rifle over his shoulder. He then left the room and stopped in front of Jenna's door again - but before he could even raise his hand to knock, he heard a cough come from inside of the room. "Jenna?" Ray called out her name and received no response from her. He waited just a second longer, then opened the door. "Jenna." He repeated, but stopped in his tracks once he saw her. She was sitting up, and her cheeks were stained with red lines from recent tears. She must have been crying for a while. "Jen… you're sick…" Ray didn't know what to do for her, he should have known that it was coming, but still felt disbelief. 

"I told you. I told you Ray!" Jenna felt helpless, and she feared what was to come. She never wanted it to be her, and now she'd suffer like the rest of them. 

"I'm going to get you to that siren Jenna. We just need to leave now!" Ray now truly hoped that the siren was a safe haven. 

"Did you cough yet?" Jenna questioned, as Ray had hugged her twice already. 

"Not yet… but even if I am sick, I'm getting you there." Ray said, and watched her slowly get up from her bed. He felt Crystal nudge his leg below; he looked down at her and saw how anxious she appeared to be - and not a second later, Ray heard aggressive banging at the front door. He stepped out of the room to look at it. "How… how did they know we were here?" Ray tightened the grip he had on his rifle. 

"I don't know. Maybe they can sense other infected… or their hearing is now more sensitive?" Jenna was only guessing, but the virus had been evolving at a rapid rate. 

"Are there a lot out there Crys'?" Ray asked, and the espeon shook her head. As far as she could tell, there were only two. "Okay…" Ray glanced over at the window. "Jenna, open the window." He told her while eyeing the door that had suddenly gone silent. 

She quietly pulled the window open and took a step back from it. 

"Let me go first. Wait here..." Ray silently hopped out of the window and landed on the ground outside, but was already greeted by a young infected female and her weavile standing across from him on the same side of the house. Her clothing was ripped and torn in numerous areas, and their eyes had that odd yellow glaze layered over them as they stood still, staring at Ray. "Yeah… their hearing has definitely improved." There was no way out of this situation except for shooting both the trainer and her pokémon. Ray wouldn't try to outrun any infected again, and that weavile would definitely catch up. The dilemma was that if their hearing had become more sensitive, the infected would respond to the gunshots from miles away. That only meant that Ray would have to quickly flee the area with Jenna and Crystal. "As soon as I fire the first shot, run towards the town's exit. I'll be right behind you two." Ray commanded and swiftly steadied his aim and full focus onto the two infected bodies ahead - and without any warning or hesitance, he pulled the trigger. Ray heard both Jenna and Crystal run off behind him as he continuously shot, and missed at least half of them since he wasn't the best with a rifle. Fortunately, the weavile that was once alive was hit in the head twice, instantly killing it. But its trainer had already started running toward Ray. He wasn't able to land a shot on her in time, and she quickly got close enough and tackled him to the ground under him. It caused Ray to drop his rifle and fall onto his back with the female landing on top of him. Not only was she grossly infested by parasites, but he feared what she'd do to him if he couldn't fight her off. Ray wriggled under her and tried to push her off by shoving her chest back with his hands with a few light grunts, even though he hated touching her. 

The infected trainer didn't budge, and retaliated by gashing the skin across Ray's chest with her nails. It even cut through his shirt and left four bloody wound lines where she'd attacked. 

He audibly cried out and gasped in pain, and a few moments afterward, Ray heard another few gunshots. Blood splattered across his face, and he saw the female that was once oppressing him fall over onto the ground by his right. 

"Ray! Ray…" Jenna dropped his rifle and sat next to him. He luckily wasn't cut too deep, but the infected were obviously very powerful, and he was still losing blood. "Ray... are you okay?" Jenna tried tending to him as he looked to be fainting, but looked behind her to see Crystal fending off another infected person. 

Ray's plan had completely failed, and now, Jenna and Crystal were left to defend whatever came to attack them.


	24. Canalave

"Ray!... Ray, you have to get up!" 

He heard Jenna's voice; it sounded muffled and faint. His vision was blurred - but it slowly fell into place, and he saw the blue, cloudless sky above him. "Nnh…" Ray still felt a strong burning sensation coming from his chest wound, but he had to push it aside for now. He looked to the right and saw Crystal beaming oncoming attackers while Jenna effectively sprayed others with the rifle. It quickly ran out of ammo, and she dropped it. That would negatively impact their ability to defend. Ray sat up, wincing from the pain he felt in his chest while wiping the blood off of his face.

"Ray… we have to get out of here! We can't take them all, and I'm out of ammo!" Jenna reached over and helped him get onto his feet by pulling him up by his arm. 

Crystal had been keeping the infected people and pokémon at bay, but her stamina was nearly depleted. 

"Then… let's go." Ray wouldn't dare give up, even though all odds were against them, but when weren't they? "You have to lead this time Jen, I don't… have it in me. We need to get to Jubilife." Ray's breathing pattern was uneven, and he felt weak. 

"Crystal, come on!" Jenna shouted to the espeon and began running toward Floaroma's exit despite feeling weak herself. 

Crystal shot a few more psybeams at some close range attackers before running after Jenna and Ray. 

They were now being chased again. It was the very situation that Ray wanted to avoid, and with no guarantee that the siren would be their savior, he almost felt that he'd just die trying to reach it. There were five more people running after them since Crystal had beamed most of them while on the run, and they had no intention of stopping. Ray did though, because he was fed up with running like a helpless victim. He was already infected anyway. 

"Ray, what…" Jenna skidded to a stop and watched him turn around and kick one that approached right in the chest, which promptly knocked the infected person onto the ground. 

Crystal was right by her trainer's side, and accurately beamed one of them who had grabbed ahold of Ray's arm - along with the one that Ray had immobilized with a heavy kick to the ribcage. 

Two down, and three more to go. This time, Ray charged the next infected male and grappled his shoulders, then began to repeatedly throw rapid punches at his stomach and chest. And before the male was able to fight Ray off, Ray landed a powerful right hook to his face, which easily knocked him unconscious. The last two had been taken care of by Crystal, and a long few minutes of silence passed by as Ray stared down at the damage he caused. He'd never be the same again, that's for sure. "Thank you… Crystal." He spoke in between breaths, and snapped out of his short recovery phase once he heard Jenna cough again. "Are you okay Jenna?" Ray asked her. 

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Let's just keep moving!" She didn't want anymore victims of the virus finding them. Now was their chance to ditch the scene. 

They arrived at Jubilife city's entrance in half an hour, fortunately running into nothing but close calls along the way. 

"Ray, we need to tend to your chest wound." Jenna stopped in front of the city's entrance and turned to him. 

"No, no… we need to get to Sandgem. You're sick, and I know I am." 

"Ray…" 

"We're wasting time by talking. Keep going Jen." Ray then leaned down to Crystal for a moment. "Crys', are you all right? You fought a lot back there." 

The espeon nodded, she didn't feel sick either. She was nearly exhausted, but that wouldn't stop her from keeping on. Especially because she had to keep her trainer safe. He'd already gotten attacked. 

"Okay… come on." As they passed through Jubilife, Crystal sensed many infected roaming throughout the city. The small group had to tread carefully from then on, stealthily hiding behind buildings and such as to not be spotted by any carriers of the parasite. By the time they safely reached the city's exit, it was early afternoon. "We're close. We just have to cross route 202." Ray kneeled down, and he began to have a hard time breathing. 

Jenna noticed this. "Enough of this Ray! We have to do something about your injury." 

"We're too close Jenna…" 

"You still don't know even what's at that siren!" 

"If nothing's there, I'm dead anyway… but if I have a chance to live, I'm taking it. I'm at least taking it for Crystal." 

Jenna sighed and looked to route 202. "Damn it Ray…" There was no talking him out of what he wanted, and so she began to quickly head down route 202. Crystal only had to beam one infected while they traveled down the route, but that was because many of them were occupying Sandgem. 

"Well, we aren't going in there…" Jenna watched a heavy amount of pokémon and their trainers aimlessly walk about while hiding behind Sandgem's entrance. 

And right after Jenna had said that, they heard the siren go off. Clear as day, covering every inch of the sky with its blare. Ray listened to it carefully this time. It sounded so close, extremely close. It was coming from behind them. Not directly behind them either. The siren couldn't possibly be in Oreburgh, and that only left them with one other city. The city that was by water; that used to have a working ferry system. "It's in Canalave…"


	25. Finding Out

['The Revenant Medley' is a song that fits well while reading this chapter.]

Ray slowly opened his eyes and frantically looked around the room that he was in. He felt like he was out of breath, but looked down to see that his chest had been wrapped with gauze, and was likely stitched up as well. The room he was in was gray all around. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor. He had no idea where he was, just that he was alone; without Jenna and Crystal. It took him long enough just to realize that he was sitting in a gray metal chair. 

A person shortly walked through the door in front of him. The person wore a full white hazmat suit and stood at a distance in front of Ray. A bit of silence ensued before any words were spoken. "What do you remember?" 

Ray knew that the person was male now. "Where am I?" Ray asked, ignoring the question that was asked to him. 

"Answer mine first." 

"I-I remember running. I ran from Sandgem with… a girl… and my pokémon. Where are they?" 

"You're on a ship. You luckily blacked out just as you entered Carnalave. We saw you and took care of your less than desirable followers, then brought you in and tended to you." 

"My pokémon… and my friend." Ray looked up at the man intently, wanting answers. 

"Your pokémon is fine, we're running a few tests on her right now, and she's well. Your friend is not. She's deathly ill, infected with the virus like everyone else in the quarantine zone. We've no cure for it just yet, but we're doing everything we can to find one." 

"But… I'm infected too. I touched my friend, and I was attacked by one of those monsters!" Ray figured that he would also be quarantined soon. 

"Correct. You do carry the virus, but we found out that you carry its source." 

Ray didn't understand, but he wanted to. "What?" 

The man crouched down. "We believe the parasite originated in Sandgem. It was originally a virus that existed and was active long long ago that took over only the bodies of pokémon. It was awakened very recently, and the first body that it happens to infect… well, that body then becomes the… 'parent carrier' for this particular virus. The virus lies dormant in its selected host for however long it needs to in order to recuperate. Once it is ready, it begins to make copies of itself. But it won't kill its primary host. It instead uses it to spread itself and infect others upon direct contact. The second being the parasite was exposed to was you. Again, it went through its dormant phase inside of you, but it had to slowly evolve itself in order to be able to affect humans. Once it did, it used you to overtake an entire region within months." 

Ray took everything in that was explained to him. He didn't even begin to know what to think of it. "So… I basically killed everyone. I killed everyone I knew." 

"Not per say. The parasite only used you to infect others. But your pokémon had to have picked it up first and gave it to you, unfortunately." 

Ray nodded, and said not another word. He had questions that he didn't even feel like asking. "What now?" Was all that he did manage to ask. 

"We need to soon run more tests on you as we are with your pokémon. It may bring us a potential cure. You may rest for now. Unfortunately, you do have to be kept in the quarantine zone for our safety, but we have armed infantry in there, and it isn't like you can truly get ill anyway. It's like having an immunity. Consider yourself lucky." 

Ray was taken to quarantine by more personnel wearing protective gear. The zone was a large room under the ship that held a cool temperature. There were tons of guards patrolling the area that constantly checked on patients that were lying in beds behind white cloth curtains. Ray quickly learned that once anyone here died from the virus or requested to be killed to avoid the suffering that came with it, that they were shot in the head without any hesitation from the guards. Ray was told to take any available bed, but he wanted to find Jenna first. He walked through countless rows of coughing and groaning patients and pulled the curtains back from in front of every bed he came across to no avail. Ray had to find her. He kept this up, curtain after curtain, bed after bed, and row after row. He'd been searching for five minutes straight, and it had tired him out. But finally, in the 30th row, and behind the 10th curtain that Ray pulled back. He saw her. He saw her lying there with her eyes shut, and an IV inserted into her left arm. "Jenna…" Ray took a few steps forward and stood next to her while staring down at her. She looked so weak. 

Her eyes slowly opened, and as soon as she saw Ray, Jenna raised her shaky right arm up to him. 

He took her hand into his and leaned down to give her a soft hug. He reached his arms under her upper back and even lifted her up a bit as he embraced her. 

She weakly held onto his sides while he did. 

Ray set her back down after a few seconds and wiped his eyes with his right hand. He couldn't hold back his tears while seeing Jenna in this state. 

"Don't…" Jenna spoke softly and looked up at him. 

That's when he told Jenna all of what had been explained to him when he was sitting in that chair. 

"Ray… it wasn't your fault." 

"My mother was killed by it. All of my friends were killed by it, and now it's killing you Jenna… I don't want to lose you to this virus too. You d-don't deserve this." Ray wiped his eyes some more and closed them tightly for a moment. 

"You did what you said you'd do for me Ray. You brought me to the siren. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, and whether I live or die. You did it. You're the best person I've ever met Ray. I knew that as soon as I saw you for the first time." Jenna grinned and gathered enough strength to sit up on her bed. 

Ray hadn't yet stopped crying. He'd miss this girl a lot, he attached himself to her while on the journey. He leaned down to her face and deeply kissed her soft lips while firmly hugging her upper waist. 

Jenna closed her eyes while it lasted and coughed after he'd pulled away. "Ray, I don't want you to worry about me. I want you to move on. Just you and Crystal." 

"Don't say that Jenna. They could possibly find a cure for this. He told me himself." 

"There's no guarantee, is there? So if one isn't found, you have to, Ray. Do it for me." Jenna gazed up at him firmly and gently gripped onto his hand with her right. "Do it for me."


	26. Prevention

Ray had been in the quarantine zone for about twenty minutes already. He had no clue when he had to be tested on, but he'd stay with Jenna until then. Ray was lying next to her on the right side of her bed. His arm hugged her waist, and Jenna was currently asleep with her face buried into his neck. If these truly would be Jenna's last few days alive, Ray wanted to be close to her for as long as possible. He wouldn't let her die alone. Ray also hoped that Crystal was okay. The man had told him that she was being tested on, and while Ray didn't trust whoever these people were, it would be necessary to let them if they were trying to rush out a cure. Him and Crystal could be what they needed. He softly ran his left hand through strands of Jenna's hair, and he cursed himself for getting so attached to her. It felt like he'd been with her throughout the entire apocalypse. 

Suddenly, Ray felt her abruptly exhale into his neck and clutch her stomach. She sat up a bit and cried out in pain, though she did try to keep it low. "Jenna, what is it?" Ray sat up next to her and looked down at her stomach. 

"I felt a… a sharp pain in my stomach. It was unbearable." Jenna began to tear up, but not from the pain she'd just experienced. It was fear. She knew that the virus had now begun to attack her internally, slowly eating away at her insides. "I don't want to go through this Ray… don't let me suffer." Jenna looked over at him, her eyes filled with desperation and horror. 

Ray didn't want to deny her a quick death in exchange for her being slowly destroyed over the course of a week or less, but there could still be a chance that she could be cured. "Jen, can you hold on? At least until after they test me some more. Please?" 

She stared at him for a few seconds before nodding her head. She just wanted it to end before it truly started, whether it be death or a cure. 

Fortunately, only five more minutes had passed on before the curtain to their bed was opened. "There you are. Come with us." The two guards motioned for Ray to follow, and he did without hesitation. He was taken out of quarantine, through a few empty; dimly lit corridors, and finally placed into a room that had a bed and tons of various medical equipment and medications placed along shelves. "Wait in here, and don't touch anything." The guards said before closing the door. 

Ray went to sit on the elevated bed. Soon, three more people entered the room. They wore the same protective suits as well. Everyone looked the same in here. 

"All we need to do is take a few more blood samples. It should determine everything. We've taken enough from your pokémon, and she'll be where you were found in quarantine once you return." With that being said, they took a small amount of Ray's blood and let him go within minutes. "We'll bring you back up once we get results, so stay put." The escort told Ray once he'd been dropped off in front of the curtain at Jenna's bed again. 

He pushed it out of the way and stepped inside, and was immediately greeted by his espeon sitting at the bottom of the bed. "Crystal!" Ray grinned and leaned down to tightly hug his espeon. "I missed you so much Crys'. Are you okay?" 

Crystal leaned up and gave her trainer a gentle lick on his cheek. 

Ray held onto the sides of her shoulders and gave her a kiss on her head. He now had both Jenna and Crystal with him, but only one of them was guaranteed to live. Jenna was currently lying on her side, and she seemed to be asleep again. Ray would allow her to, and sat next to Crystal, setting the espeon in his lap and tilting her chin up so that she was looking up at him. He studied every inch of her cute features and adorable face. Ray was glad that she was immune to the virus. They both were. He didn't know how to feel about him being the one to unintentionally spread the parasite to all of Sinnoh, but Ray could only be glad that him and Crystal were okay as of right now. 

He looked up as the curtains were suddenly pulled aside again, and Ray left Crystal with Jenna as he was taken up to another room. It seemed to be a larger version of the room he'd woken up in, but there were chairs to the sides and a large projector placed in the middle of the room. 

"I never got your name from when we first met." The man said while ordering his guards to leave the room. 

"It's Ray." Ray stood by the door. 

"You can call me Charles. Ray, I think we're onto something here." 

"Really? Can you cure it?" Ray felt just a pinch of hope for Jenna. 

"I think the most we can do is prevent it. Your blood contains the parent carrier. If we inject that contaminated blood into the non infected, they'll become infected… but not sick. We have yet to test this, but I will on one of my own soon." Charles explained. 

"That's great… but what about those that are already infected?" Ray lost that touch of hope just as fast as he'd gotten it. 

"Ray… I don't think there's much we can do for them. The virus kills in a week or less. We can't find a cure that fast. This is a very complex parasite." 

"Y-you can't just let them die like that! They're all suffering down there. My friend is-" 

"Ray, I get it, but you have to understand how powerful this virus is. If you never showed up, we wouldn't have even found this potential prevention method." Charles picked up a small remote from one of the chairs next to him and turned the projector on. A large map of every region was displayed on screen. "Luckily, this virus is only confined to Sinnoh as far as we know. To make sure it stays that way, we plan transport the contaminated blood to every region so that it can be distributed amongst the mass population - if the idea works anyway." 

Ray felt his chest tighten, there really was no hope for Jenna. "So, there's nothing that can be done? What will be done with the sick then?" 

"We can't risk taking those that are sick to other regions with us. We're still docked at Canalave because of this, and infantry outside are constantly holding back the ill that are rushing us. We have to leave those in the quarantine zone behind, and we'll give them free choice. They can try their luck surviving out there, or we'll humanely eliminate them with their consent. We plan to depart in thirty minutes. As fast as possible." 

Ray wanted to argue against this, but what could he say? "I want to see my friend before we leave." 

"Of course, I'll have you taken down. Thank you for understanding, Ray. Oh - and we had your espeon taken to a personal room. You'll be taken there once you're done in the zone." 

Ray was escorted back down to quarantine, and he walked back over to Jenna's bed. He pushed through the curtains and saw her sitting up. 

"I know already. I can't go." She said upon seeing Ray stand at the foot of her bed. 

"It's not fair, Jen. I… really wanted you to make it out of this." He felt more tears begin to form in his eyes. 

"You know... I said I wasn't afraid of death, so why don't I want to die?" She looked down, and didn't bother crying anymore. There was no point to. "Because I was so close..." 

Ray took a few steps toward her, but Jenna raised her right hand. 

"No more." She looked up at him. "Go, Ray. Leave." 

"Jen-" 

"I said leave! You're only making this worse for yourself." Jenna said this firmly, and he would respect her wishes. 

"Okay… goodbye, Jenna. I'm sorry…" Ray sighed deeply, and bumped into two guards as soon as he exited the curtains. He was taken down a few corridors, then to a door near the front of the ship. 

"You'll stay in here while we travel to Unova."


	27. Only Crystal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Mark- (Interlude) Extended Cut | is a song that fits '''perfectly''' with this chapter.

Ray entered the small room and watched the door close behind him. There was a bed that was placed under a round window sill, and a shelf placed next to the bed. 

Crystal was sitting in front of the window, but turned around as soon as she heard her trainer enter. 

He walked over and sat on the bed; then moved over to look out of the window with her. The sun was setting over the ocean, and it was a beautiful sight. He gazed at the deep, orange colored sky with Crystal sitting in his lap. Ray draped his arms over his espeon while watching the smooth movement of the glistening waves. He was content; he felt content. Through the single, gapped gunshots he heard below him on the lower deck. He felt just fine. Ray didn't get what he wanted, but he did get what he'd wanted since the beginning of this outbreak. He still had Crystal, and he'd survived the virus. It was pure luck. An insane amount of it, but he did it. 

Ray felt a few vibrations; heard a few creaks and groans - then the ship soon began to progress forward. He hadn't yet taken his eyes off of the sunset. It was the best one he'd seen in all of his life. Ray slowly traced his right hand up and down Crystal's sleek back, and she soon fell asleep while curled up in her trainer's lap. Her face was buried into his lower stomach, and Ray hadn't moved. He was now watching the moon floating above in the starry night sky, and its light just slightly illuminating the black waves that moved underneath them. 

They arrived the next night at Castelia city in Unova, and Ray was taken off board by infantry while he held Crystal. He stared ahead at the brightly lit up city from the docks right by the ship until he was approached. 

"It works, Ray. We injected your contaminated blood into one of my men, then shortly injected the same blood, but inserted a parasite at an aggressive stage of the virus. It didn't attack. We're still watching its behavior closely, but it won't dare attack when a parent is present. You did it, Ray. We'll begin cloning parents and distributing them publicly soon enough." Charles seemed relieved, but Ray didn't feel much. He didn't even respond to him. "Take him to one of the hotels, but make sure you monitor him for a while." Charles nodded Ray off, and he was then taken to a building in Castelia by two guards. 

Once Ray was in his room on the third floor, he set Crystal down, and wasn't sure what to do with himself. There were changes of clothes in the dresser across from the bed, and a shower in the bathroom. Maybe tomorrow. Ray couldn't think, and he couldn't feel much. He couldn't process a thing that had happened in the past months, or anything that went on currently. It felt like a dream. He was lost, and he'd be even more so if Crystal wasn't here with him, for she was all that Ray had. 

Just Crystal. 

Only Crystal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. ♡


End file.
